(From L to R) Austin, Teresa, Byron and Candice eventually win the much-coveted movie parts on the "Transformers 4 Chinese Actors Talent Search Reality Show" held in Beijing, Aug. 25, 2013. [Photo: China.org.cn]
Hollywood blockbuster Transformers 4 has selected four more Chinese actors to star in the production after a televised four-month-long auditioning process.
"I want everybody to have fun," Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the film's producer who has produced all the Transformers movies, told China.org.cn about the producers' decision to recruit actors through a TV contest aired on the China Movie Channel.
"We are always looking for different ways to learn about other cultures. This is a great way to see people's passion and excitement. It allows for everybody to have fun together," he added.
Byron Li, Austin Lin, Candice Zhao, Teresa Daley eventually won the much-coveted movie parts Sunday night on the "'Transformers 4 Chinese Actors Talent Search Reality Show," launched by Paramount Pictures in cooperation with Jiaflix and the China Movie Channel in April. The contest was open to both professional and amateur actors, attracting more than 70,000 contestants.
Byron, who hails from the Chinese mainland, is a young actor and model who has graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. He won the role of Kung Fu fighter; Candice, a model who won the 35th Miss Bikini International Pageant China, got the role of sexy goddess; Austin, from Taiwan, who has a professional background in Taiwanese TV shows and films like "Somewhere I Have Never Travelled," got the role of computer geek; and Teresa, who has appeared in several Taiwan TV shows and movies such as "Winds of September," won the role of cute Loli.
The panel of judges included Sid Ganis, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science and present chairman of Jiaflix Enterprises; Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of Transformers 4; Lindsey Bayman, senior vice president of the Business Affairs Department at Paramount Pictures; Megan Colligan, president of Marketing and Distribution at Paramount Pictures; and Liang Longfei, vice president of the China Movie Channel's official movie website M1905.com. They saw contestants compete for the four roles through a small drama role play and several personal talent shows.
The producer said the contest winners will receive some training and start working on the production by late September or early October.
Chinese movie star Li Bingbing and pop star Han Geng have already signed on to star in Transformers 4, one of the most anticipated new film franchise releases to be directed by Michael Bay. There are six Chinese roles in the film, but the producer didn't reveal how big the roles will be.
"We don't really look at it that way, " Lorenzo di Bonaventura said, "For us it's an opportunity to get new talent; for new talent, it's an opportunity to experience [making] a big Hollywood movie, I think it's important for both sides and not about how big or how small something is."
"In America, we wouldn't cast a brand new person in a big part; we would give him an opportunity. But I don't want anybody to assume that 'because you are Chinese we will not give you big roles.' Young talent gets smaller roles; they get to grow from there, they get noticed from those. That's a very important part of the Hollywood process," he added.
He also confirmed there would not be a special movie version for China like Iron Man 3, but the final cut will be submitted to Chinese censors and it's up to them to make changes.
"We certainly appreciate China's 'Transformers 3' box office," Lorenzo di Bonaventura said, "We found we had huge success in Japan, South Korea, China and Malaysia. The Asian markets are really embracing Transformers. Obviously China is the largest among them."
2011 smash hit Transformers: Dark of the Moon took in US$1.1 billion worldwide, including US$165 million in China alone.
Bonaventura explained why they chose to film part of this Transformers movie in China, "One of the reasons we shoot the film here is because Michael Bay has a vision of what should happen in the third act, so we need a place that can deliver that. Only very few places in the world work. The only Asian place we could find to [actually] do what we were hoping to do, was China. So we made the decision and it was a creative decision."
The producer said they have already built a China town to resemble Hong Kong in Detroit to film some Chinese scenes.
Transformers 4, directed by Michael Bay and starring Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor and Li Bingbing, Han Geng and four more newly selected Chinese actors, is due in theatres on June 27, 2014.