Updates on 'Transformers 3' Cast and Shooting Locations

The master of explosions himself, Michael Bay, updated his own Web site with a big casting addition for the forthcoming, guaranteed box office hit "Transformers 3."

The director revealed Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand ("Fargo"), Academy-Award nominee John Malkovich ("Burn After Reading"), and up-and-coming funnyman Ken Jeong ("The Hangover") have all joined the sequel.

Deadline Hollywood has a bit of extra information revealing McDormand's character is a big one as the National Intelligence Director while Malkovich will be playing Sam Witwicky's first boss. No word on Jeong's role, but all three of these additions should make things a little more interesting.

The idea of such talent taking on a role in a film franchise so obviously not interested in acting as much spectacle just seems funny to me. Two of the actors have been nominated for Academy Awards (with one a winner)! Maybe they need a break from doing some good acting and just want to have a little fun with giant robots.

Bay also announced that there will be a new Autobot that will change into a Ferrari 458 Italia (a very sweet vehicle). Hopefully it won't speak in a stereotypical Italian accent.
This huge box office bonanza will also be shooting pretty much everywhere: Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Florida, Texas, Africa, Moscow, and China. Looks like the “bigger is better” approach is being revisited when it comes to locations; let’s hope the rest of the movie is toned down a bit.

To bring home some thoughts again on the previous "Transformers" film...of the many, many things that were wrong with "Transformers 2," perhaps the most unforgivable was the sorry state of the film's script, rushed through the production process to meet a pre-scheduled start-date. The script boasted an utterly incoherent story, virtually no level of character development, about 30 pages (equal to about 30 minutes of the film) of completely unnecessary material and two robot sidekicks who managed to make Jar Jar Binks look about as eloquent and engaging as Hannibal Lecter.

I am going to go into this third film with little to no expectations - even with these excellent casting additions.

"Transformers 3" begins pre-shoots next month, and is set for a July 1st, 2011 release.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: First Showing, Screen Rant, UGO Movie Blog, Rope of Silicon