As the whole world now knows, as of last week, Megan Fox is no longer part of Transformers 3.  What happened?

Deadline reported that Paramount decided not to pick up her option, but the decision came from Michael Bay — meaning he effectively fired her.  But then Fox’s publicist went to TheWrap with the story that Fox actually quit, because of Bay’s “verbal abuse” on the first two films.

The amusing part is that Deadline and TheWrap are competitors known to badmouth each other at every opportunity.  So which one are you supposed to believe?

As annoying and sexist as I usually find Michael Bay, the most likely explanation tends to be whatever came out first: that she was fired.  If she actually quit but didn’t make it public until after Paramount leaked otherwise, she has a terrible publicist.  (Then again, denying that she was fired so late and tepidly means that’s probably true anyway.)

Besides, what would be the point of Paramount spreading misinformation?  If she quit, she quit, no need to get embroiled in a public war of words.  Studios aren’t that petty.  Bay maybe, but studios, no.  Right?

Earlier this month, Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey revealed that he was joining the cast of Transformers 3, which Paramount later confirmed.

Originally, Dempsey was set to play Megan Fox’s boss — until certain recent events got in the way.  Of course, it was never even revealed what type of boss he’d be playing, or what job Fox’s character had — so let’s just assume the screenplay is, at best, in a state of flux.  (At worst: barely existent.)

So what will he play now?  Will the character need to be rewritten?  Apparently Dempsey’s role is “dark,” which could mean anything from stereotypical sleazeball to Decepticon Pretender.

Michael Bay has come out against doing Transformers 3 in 3D — but there’s still a possibility Paramount will force it anyway.

There are two different ways to do 3D: shoot it with actual 3D cameras, which is what James Cameron did with Avatar, or shoot it in 2D and put the film through a 3D conversion afterward.  That’s what Alice in Wonderland and most other 3D movies have done.

The former method achieves the best result, but Bay’s in-the-action shooting style doesn’t lend itself to using such fragile, slow technology.  So the only other option is to do a 3D conversion — except that’s not really “true 3D.”  Deadline.com quotes Bay:

I am trying to be sold, and some companies are still working on the shots I gave them.  Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you’re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks. People can say whatever they want about my movies, but they are technically precise, and if this isn’t going to be excellent, I don’t want to do it. And it is my choice. …

I’m used to having the A-team working on my films, and I’m going to hand it over to the D-team, have it shipped to India and hope for the best? This conversion process is always going to be inferior to shooting in real 3D. Studios might be willing to sacrifice the look and use the gimmick to make $3 more a ticket, but I’m not.  Avatar took four years. You can’t just shit out a 3D movie. I’m saying, the jury is still out.

In true Bay form, he’s unwilling to flat-out say he won’t do 3D, to avoid too much backpedaling if Paramount eventually forces a 3D conversion upon him.  But it’s pretty clear what he really thinks.  It’ll be interesting to see who blinks first, him or Paramount.

When the Oscar nominations were announced, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen didn’t make the Visual Effects category like I had predicted earlier.  (Avatar, District 9, and Star Trek were the three nominees.)  But it did manage to grab one nomination, for Sound Mixing, which it will compete for at the ceremony on Sunday, March 7th.

Unfortunately, it faces stiff competition: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek, and Avatar are all also competing in the category.  And all four of those movies also showed up in the Sound Editing category, where Transformers was replaced by Pixar’s Up.

That doesn’t exactly give it the best chances.  In all likelihood, the award will go to Avatar in a sweep of technical awards.

But hey, it’s the Academy Awards — surprises happen.

Michael Bay has been posting some brief updates on Tranformers 3 on his official “Shoot for the Edit” site lately and he’s dropped a handful of hints:

Busy scouting - Chicago, Detroit, and Washington D.C. for Transformers last week. Things are going well. The script is feeling very different from the other two.

And, in quoting an L.A. Times article:

“There will be a nice crescendo ending,” Bay said. “It gets much more into the robot character. The last time you kind of met a few of the robots; this time you’re gonna get a much cooler landscape.”

Considering how disappointing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was, it’s nice to hear that the script is feeling “very different.”  Maybe this time they’re actually bothering to fashion a coherent film before filming begins.

We’re just a week and a half or so away from the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations, but there’s already some word on which technical awards Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen might have a shot at.

It’s one of the seven movies in the running for Best Visual Effects, a category which will eventually have three nominees.  Its competition includes Avatar, District 9, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, and 2012.

If I had to guess, it’ll make the list with Avatar and District 9, with 2012 as a potential spoiler.

Additionally, ROTF was just nominated for the Cinema Audio Society’s awards, which usually match up pretty closely with Best Sound Mixing nominees.  Other contenders in that field include Avatar, District 9, Star Trek, and The Hurt Locker.

Since it’s in consideration for Sound Mixing, a Sound Editing nomination probably isn’t far off.  And finally, its song “New Divide” is one of the dozens in consideration for Best Song.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made the most money out of any movie in the 2009 calendar year.  So that means it’s the #1 movie of the year, right?  Well, sort of.

If you’re counting by what made the most money out of any movie released in 2009, Transformers 2 drops down to #2, replaced by — you guessed it — Avatar.  James Cameron’s flick is currently at $513 and rising, versus Transformers 2’s distant $402 million.  The third spot goes to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with $301 million.  After that, there’s a good five movies ranging from $229-293 million.

But within the calendar year?  Avatar had only made $284 million by December 31st, so Transformers 2 still has it.

Empire Online got their hands on a clip from one of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s special features, a breakdown of the Decepticon attack on a fleet of battleships and aircraft carriers.

In the clip, the narrator reveals that they actually did research to check how fast boats of that size can actually sink. Turns out it’s surprisingly fast — under twenty minutes for some. Check out the clip here.

Considering Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is one of the worst-reviewed movies of the year (not a judgment, just an observation), it takes a certain amount of sheer nerve to try to get it nominated for Oscars.

Not just Visual Effects or Sound Editing, mind you.  It’ll probably be nominated for awards like that.  I’m talking the big guns: Best Picture and Best Director.  Yes, Paramount Pictures is suggesting that Michael Bay get an Oscar nomination.  Check it out for yourself at ParamountScreenings.com.

Why are they doing this?  I like to think it’s because Michael Bay sincerely believes that he deserves it.

In an article on The Playlist, they even show some For Your Consideration art:

I’m not sure if that’s fake or not.  It looks like a screen-capture of the Paramount Screenings site, but the artwork is from a fan-made poster.  Maybe they had it up originally but took it down when they realized.

The Scream Awards were held a couple of weeks ago in L.A., but they’re not airing until tonight.  If you want to catch Megan Fox and Isabel Lucas — both in attendance — check it out on Spike TV at 10 p.m.

As we reported the day after the event, Fox won Best Sci-Fi Actress and Lucas won Best Breakthrough Female Performance.  I hope that doesn’t ruin any surprises.