As he gets close to the wire finishing Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Michael Bay can’t help but take the odd break to chat about the movie.

Talking with the LA Times’ Geoff Boucher, he revealed a little bit more about the focus this time, now the franchise is up and running.

“People I've shown this to instantly feel like, 'Hey, I know that family, they’re fun to watch.' It’s like when you watch a favourite TV series, there are things about familiarity you like and it can be satisfying.

“There are other benefits from doing it a second time. Movies do take a life. Things spark and take a life, things you thought would be important drop away and a tone is set. With the sequels, you know the tone. That’s a huge thing."

And that tone? Darker, if he has his way ("This one is less quippy"), but not so dark that, you know, kids can’t get into the movie.

"Jeffrey Katzenberg gave me advice once. He said it's great to have little characters with these big huge voices," Bay says of some of the new, smaller Autobot and Decepticon ‘bots who will crop up. Yeah, can’t wait…

He also blabs about working with Shia LaBeouf, and about how the maturing thesp can go off into dark areas himself… “You sometimes have to push him when he doesn’t believe it. He’ll go through a dark period. With actors you’ve got to be a psychologist. You have to see the darkness coming, especially with funny actors.

“I can see it coming on and I have to say, ‘Shia…’ and pull him aside. I explain it to him and he’ll come out of it. And then he’ll say, ‘You’re right, you’re right, I was in that mood…’ The reason is they're scared of things sometimes. It’s not easy being an actor and putting yourself out there.”

Actors: they’re just as messed up as everyone else, if not more!

[Source: LA Times]

Excited for the new TF pic? Ready for more robot rumbles? Or are the characters the reason you watch? Tell us…