Taormina 2007 Awards

• Golden Tauro: "Akher Film (Making Of)" by Nouri Bouzid
• Special Jury Prize for Best Direction: David Volach for "Hofshat Kaits (My Father, My Lord)"
• Special Jury Prize for Best Script: Stefano Incerti, Salvatore Parlagreco, Heidrun Schleef for "L'Uomo Di Vetro (Man of Glass)"
• Prize for Best Performance: Lotfi Abdelli in "Akher Film (Making Of)"

"Transformers" World Premiere: Press Conference

At a standing room only press conference accompanying the world premiere of "Transformers" in Taormina, Director Michael Bay ("Pearl Harbor", "Armageddon", "Bad Boys") talks about Steven Spielberg's crucial role for the movie, admits he did not know "The Strokes" and explains how he gets to wreck so many cars in his movies. Lead actor Shia LaBeouf talks about how he got his first car and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explains why the movie is premiering outside of the US.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf presenting "Transformers" in Taormina

What was the first thing Spielberg told you after the first screening of the movie?

Michael Bay: When Spielberg saw the scene with the robots around the house he was laughing like a kid – he slapped me on the leg and said “I’ve never seen robots do that”. I was surprised, since my movies are always long in the beginning. – and the early version of this one was hard to watch, since you don’t have the special effects in yet, just crude models. But Spielberg kept giving me high-five during the screening, actually

At what point of the project did you get on board? For instance, who chose the robots?

Michael Bay: I got involved when there was only the very kernel of the idea. Spielberg called me up and told me the rough story about this boy, but there was no script at that time. That’s when I hired this massive team of artists, and got animators. I really started from ground zero.

Has any of you ever played with the original “Transformers” toys?

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: Let’s say that at least, we all struggled to put them back together at least once.
Michael Bay: At Hasbro, I actually went to “transformers school”. There, the head of the company talked to me about transformers, showing off the toys. He had a special guy next to him whose job it was to put the toys back together.

Shia, you came into this world as a young actor – was it difficult to make a character stand out?

Shia LaBeouf: “Transformers” has a huge volume – there are some die-hard fans. For all my friends, this is a big deal. In terms of appeasing the audience: You’re a new character, you don’t want to mess up the franchise, so there’s a lot of pressure.

Michael, you have made many blockbuster movies now. Does it become more difficult to raise the bar each time?

Michael Bay: Regarding budget, at $145 million, we’re at half as much as ”Pirates” and “Spiderman”. So that is an accomplishment. But yes, you do try to raise the bar every time. I really like to make movies that introduce people to a new world.

Do you want to make smaller movies as well?

Michael Bay: Absolutely – there’s a character movie that I want to do, with great dialogue and great characters. I also have a production company that helps small movies with budgets around 8-9 million Dollars.

Michael Bay receiving a Taormina Arte Award

How do your stories get developed?

Michael Bay: That’s a long answer – I could go on forever. What I do in my movies when I write script I create images that people haven’t seen. For example, in “Pearl Harbor”, it’s the bomb falling down and following it with the camera. I am very attracted to visuals, that’s how I come into my stories. It is weird, about an hour into my movies there is always this a weird visual montage – in “Transformers”, it’s the robots coming down on earth. Sometimes you can just tell a story through images. For me, script-writing is two-ways. I wrote with writers but I write as well on the script. We trade the script back and forth.

Are you using real stories in your movies?

Michael Bay: There are real stories that I always store away in my memory bank. In this film, there’s this scene where soldiers use a cell phone and a credit card to call the Pentagon to get an air strike – that’s based on a true story.

What role does science fiction play for you?

Michael Bay: I have done three science fiction movies now. I guess it’s just the world of the unknown that I like, the fancy element of it. I have always been intrigued with space. I like the otherworldly fantasy element.

Was it ever dangerous for the actors on the set?

Shia LaBeouf: Yes – all the stuff you see on the roof is for real. For me that was pretty wild. The way Michael got us into this was by saying: “They do it on fear factor – so you got to do it, too.”
Michael Bay: Actually, what I said was: You get paid more than the kids on fear factor so you got to go out and do it.
Shia LaBeouf: But we had a great stunt team, so you were not isolated. Bay was there as well when we shot theses scenes. So if something went wrong and you would die, all the others would too. But wee all got scars though, all the cast.

Could you explain the marketing strategy for the film? It’s interesting to have the premiere outside of the United States for a film of this size.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura: We are releasing this film in several countries at the same time, and the timing of Taormina was perfect. This is an event film. We were just in Madrid last night and will be in London tomorrow. The hardest thing about the movie was to keep human spirit a live. The campaign stresses the fact that there is a lot of human emotion, a lot of humor.

I see elements of a lot of other movies in “Transformers”, for example “King Kong”.

Michael Bay: It’s true that there is a reference to “King Kong”, a film that I love very much. When I was scouting in downtown LA I saw the Tower Theater which I always liked and thought we should shoot there. And I tried to emulate a little bit of “King Kong”. But I don’t think there is a lot of things from other movies in “Transformers”, actually.

Shia, was your first car as important to you as to the character you play in the movie?

Shia LaBeouf: Of course, my first car was important to me. Actually I won mine at my Temple’s raffle – it was an ‘83 Volvo. At the same time, I was making some money in a TV show, and I put all that money into the car Stereo that was more expensive than the car itself.

Did you do a lot of market research?

Michael Bay: We don’t do market research. I go with what’s in my gut, what I want to see. The movie could appeal to a lot of different ages. The movie’s idea is to bring out the kid inside of you. I’ve just been to Korea, they loved it, same thing in Australia. In both places, there was multiple times of major applause and laughter during the movie. The same thing in Madrid. And that happened at pretty much the same scenes, which shows the international appeal. When I make a move I make it for the world, not just for America.

How did you develop the character?

Shia LaBeouf: He’s suburban guy that does not have much life experience. He’s very neurotic. And he’s vying for the attention of this female. He’s trying to put on this rebellion mask by wearing this “Strokes” T-shirt that you can buy in a shopping mall – it’s sort of a shopping mall rebellion.
Michael Bay: I actually didn’t know who “The Strokes” were – I asked somebody who said it was a cool band.

How many cars did you break?

Michael Bay: I break a lot of cars in my movies – these are cars that are flood damaged that have to be destroyed - we have a lot of those in the US since Cathrina. So they give them to me and I do it for them. They know that I know how to do this. These scenes were actually shot in Downtown LA, Detroit and we also used Universal Studios.

"Transformers" World Premiere: The Story (SPOILERS !)

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) gets drawn into a battle between two races of alien robots, one “evil” – the Decepticons - and one “good” – the Autobots. On a polar expedition at the beginning of the 20th century, Sam’s grandfather accidentally discovered the frozen body of the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, who crashed on planet Earth hunting for the “All Spark” cube, a device that allows to create new robots which and the object of a centuries-long war between the Decepticons and the Autobots. Sam’s grandfather accidentally activates the robots navigation system, and the location of “All Spark” gets engraved into his glasses.

The whole incident gets classified “higher than top secret”. To hide the location of “All Spark”, US president Hoover actually decides to build the Hoover dam around the cube, whose huge concrete structure serves to shield the cube’s signals. Also, Megatron is shipped to the site, still in frozen state, and reverse-engineering its innards leads to the discovery of many of the technologies of the 20th century such as the microchip.

Fast-forward to the present: Sam is a geeky teenager, trying to save money for his first car. As one of the money-raising plots, he tries to sell his grandfathers memorabilia on EBay, including the glasses with the “All Spark” location engraved. This does not go unnoticed, and both Decepticons and Autobots take become aware of Sam. Both races frantically try to get a hold of Sam and, through him, of the “All Spark” cube, with the Autobots gaining an upper-hand when Sam finally buys his first car – which turns out to be “Bumblebee”, one of the Autobots.

A wild chase ensues, including the usual mix of US military, FBI and the Pentagon including the defense secretary that is common to most summer action movies of the last ten years. A dramatic showdown in downtown LA leaves not a lot of cars unharmed, and allows George Lucas’ ILM to show that they still rule in the area of special effects.

Transformers World Premiere in Taormina

The Festival is gearing up for its absolute highlight this year: tomorrow's World premiere of "Transformers", the Spielberg-backed movie version of the popular animated series and comic books. Lead actor Shia LaBeouf and Director Michael Bay are expected to give a press conference tomorrow afternoon, and the screening is to take place at 8:30PM local time in Taormina's fabulous Greek theatre, where Autobots and the Decepticons will battle out Earth's future a couple of weeks before the movie opens in the US (July 4).

For those who can't wait, various preview videos are already out on YouTube:

Eric Bana, Robert Duvall and Curtis Hanson on "Lucky You"

Actors Eric Bana ("Munich", "Black Hawk Down", "The Hulk"), Robert Duvall ("Mash") as well as academy-award-winning Director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential", "Wonder Boys", "8 Mile") talk about their poker movie “Lucky You”, how they learned to play poker, the role of luck in their lifes and about career choices.

On “Lucky You”

Eric Bana and Robert Duvall presenting "Lucky You" in Taormina

Eric, what did you learn from Mr. Duvall?

Eric Bana: When you dream of being an actor in a film you sure don't dream of acting next to the people you admire – you’re just happy to be in a movie.Bob is my favorite actor in the world. I grew up admiring his performances. When Curtis said he was approaching Bob, I nearly fell off the chair. Bob actually looks a lot like my grandfather, who has passed away and who I was very close with. I was very shocked the first time I met Bob since the resemblance is stronger in flesh than in film. Even though we've had to do lots of takes because of the nature of poker, we were always mocking around and greatly enjoyed working together.

Robert Duvall: Actually, the relationship between father and son was major drawing factor for me to do this movie.

What’s the main idea of this film, in your mind?

Curtis Hanson: “Lucky You” is a film about differences. As far as poker goes it’s about the difference between people that play it as a game and people that play it as professionals. It’s also about the difference between Las Vegas as a destination for visitors and as a town where people live. It’s about the difference between winning and losing and giving and receiving. Most importantly, it’s about the difference between how people appear and how they really are, that is, the difference between the face that people show to the world and the truth that's behind it. What’s interesting about poker is that this face is such an important part of the game, and it's called a poker face.

Curtis Hanson, Director of "Lucky You" and Academy Award winner

How did you go about making the movie?

Curtis Hanson: Poker you play sitting down - there is very little cinematic action. What I tried to do is begin the movie with a scene where a young man walks into a pawn shop - we see him gesturing, and demonstrating all of the skills he will later show at the poker table: He is seductive and in a way bullshitting. The scene climaxes with him looking at this women, and accurately reading the truth behind her eyes, and calling her bluff.This scene is there for all non-poker players so that they will understand what goes on at the poker table. We wanted to let the audience feel what it is to sit in a chair for eight to ten hours a day and all of the activity is in the brain.

On Poker

Were you poker players before you made this movie?

Robert Duvall: When I first met Curtis, I didn't know much about poker and the whole world around it. Sometimes I don’t' really like to rehearse, but here we had to. Up until the final day of the shooting, we played every day. You have to do your homework, and indeed we did it.

Eric Bana: I knew a little bit about poker because when I was a kid my family used to play cards and argue about it. By the end of the film I was a pretty good poker player, but not stupid enough to take on the experts that we had on as extras - Robert and I only played each others.

You had so many real poker players cast as themselves - did they rush to you to be in the movie, or did you cast them?

Curtis Hanson: There’s tournament poker and the cash games. We went to great length to accurately recreate these worlds. Nearly all real poker players you see in the film we cast out of casinos in LA in and in Vegas.We went to great length to recreate the “Big Game”. This has gone on for years and is the highest stake poker cash game. We went to Vegas and observed the “Big Game”. A relationship was formed and we invited the players there into the film. Then, word got out, and the professional tournament players wanted to be in the movie as well. This way, we arrived at an astonishing array of well-known poker players that make cameo appearances the movie.

On Luck

Do you believe in luck?

Eric Bana: I think I have a little bit of a hand in my own luck as well. I’m a little bit of a control freak. Good work is good work because of effort, and bad work is result of bad work.

Curtis Hanson: That’s one of the other differences I should have mentioned: the difference between luck and skill. All of the good players when you watch them they all have the same attitude about life - the longer you play, the less luck gets into the game. The great players beat the people that rely on luck

Robert Duvall: I don't know - luck is such an abstract word. You've got to make your own breaks. Luck comes along with that. It's an abstract word … You mean in a game or in life? In general, life is so elusive and abstract you can't nail it down. If you talk about poker: At one point Curtis threw it open and said: let's just play and see what happens. We had experts all around us. And I guess I had my own streak of luck then: I won 200,000 to 300,000 Dollars – but fictional Dollars only.

Eric Bana and Director Curtis Hanson in Taormina

On Career Choices

What rules do you follow when accepting a project?

Eric Bana: I don't really have any rules when it comes to choosing projects. Although I can say that I never chose a project on a second read of a script. I also very rarely revisit choices. I've never been talked into a role. I have strong reactions to the work that I do. I don’t have any general rules - there’s' nothing I wouldn’t do other than maybe porn - soft or hardcore. Other than that, I'm open.

Mr. Hanson, your work reminds me of older Hollywood directors - you always tried your hands on several genres. What's your feeling when you go into a new genre? Do you study what was done?

Curtis Hanson: I do not study other pictures prior to making a picture, since I try to not have other pictures entering my mind when I do mine. But I am a film lover and know a lot of pictures. I envy the filmmakers that did their career during the heyday of the studio system. Howard Hawks could do a film noir like "Big Sleep" and a western like "Red River" within a couple of years.Back then, the studio system was invested in a talent. Today, that's not the case anymore. It's one picture to the next. There’s no commitment over a career as it used to be - they don't nurture your career. Back then, an actor like Eric would have accompanied by a studio to developing into the biggest star possible. Today, everybody figures it out for themselves.

Mr. Duvall, you played very different roles in your career. Is there a role that you still want to play?

Robert Duvall: The way I look at my career is that you plan things down the road but surprises come out at you. This comprises at least my career. This movie was a surprise to me from Curtis. For the future, I don't know - but I'm always looking.

Photoshoot Eric Bana, Robert Duvall, Curtis Hanson ("Lucky You")

Photocall for movie "Lucky You" with actors Eric Bana ("Munich", "Black Hawk Down", "The Hulk"), Robert Duvall ("Mash") and Director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential", "Wonder Boys", "8 Mile") at the TaorminaFilmFest 2007.

Dates Next Cannes Film Festival: 14-25 May 2008

The 2008 festival will take place from May 14-25