By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Director Michael Bay and rising star Megan Fox sizzled up Monday night's Asia junket for their mega-action robot film "Transformers,'' held at N Seoul Tower. The film's character model Bumblebee, revealing its looming yellow 5.2-meter, 3.7-ton figure for the first time, also heated up the show.
"Korea is a huge emerging world market (in cinema),'' the award-winning director told journalists that gathered from all over the world for the event. He was also "very happy'' the world premier for his movie would take place here on June 28 (opens July 4 in the United States).
It is the first time a major Hollywood film held its opening press event in Korea. Artist Choe So-ri inaugurated the program with a stunning drum performance using fire and water, symbolizing the film's dueling evil Decepticons and good Autobots, respectively.
Based on a popular American comic book and TV series of the same title, "Transformers'' is about alien robot races battling on Earth to locate their long lost energy source, to which a teenager named Sam (Shia LaBoeuf) obliviously holds the key. With the help of Mikaela (Megan Fox), Sam and others join forces to save the planet.
During the press talk, Bay, 42, exerted much confidence about his film and its extensive appeal to both fans and non-fans, international and domestic.
"I grew up a non-`Transformers' fan'' he said, "so when Steven Spielberg called me a year and a half ago to direct this movie, I thought ah, it'd be a silly toy movie, (I'm) not really interested, but since then I became a gigantic `Transformers' fan.'' Bay says his favorite character is Optimus Prime, the "really cool'' leader of the human-friendly Autobots.
The director explained that the film "has a kind of a universal appeal and it brings out the kid in you,'' and that "it's definitely something new and different you haven't seen this summer, and by using really groundbreaking visual effects,'' the film "appeals to a lot of different age ranges.''
Bay continued, "I like to do ideas that are big ideas that really travel around the world,'' yet this film "was challenging because it was a cartoon. My job was to make it real and bring it to life on-screen.'' He said it was tough working with 40 artists and developing the characters.
Bay is known for his visually stunning and star-making blockbuster movies: Ben Affleck and Owen Wilson rose to stardom through "Armageddon'' (1998), Nicolas Cage became a megastar with "The Rock'' (1996) and Josh Hartnett upgraded his heartthrob image with "Pearl Harbor'' (2001).