tf2phillybay.jpg
Philly radio legend Josh Landow snuck down to the Italian Market where director Michael Bay had assembled a crew for a scene in Transformers 2. Filming began last week in Bethlehem, PA.
No Transformers (that he saw) were on set, but John Tuturro, Shia Labeouf, and Megan Fox were all present. Read on for his description and some minor spoilers.

My friend Dan, who lives right across from the Italian Market in South Philly, e-mailed me on Friday to let me know that he got a letter saying that Transformers 2 would be filming on his block Monday, June 9. While I was tempted to go hang out all there all day, I really couldn’t, but I went over after work. At first I didn’t see much except big trucks (of the non-transforming variety) parked all over the place. The trucks had signage that they were operated by Paramount Pictures and there were TF2 placards in the windows

tf2philly1.jpg tf2philly2.jpg

Finally I got to where the action was, and of all places it was Cappucelli’s Meats (a butcher shop). As you can see the crew was taking up a whole block on Kimball St. between 8th & 9th. I saw a few extras walking the same path over and over and over and the same 4 or 5 cars kept driving by. Took me a few minutes to realize though that the scene they were shooting was inside the shop, and the extras and cars were just background to be seen through the windows.

tf2philly3.jpg

After a while the stars began to come out…the puny human ones anyway; sadly Optimus, Bumblebee, and friends were nowhere to be found. In the first shot you see Megan Fox in her extraordinarily tight white jeans outside the shop. We determined that it was virtually impossible for her to have been wearing underwear. Her head is turned there, so it’s hard to tell, but she was so damn fake tanned orange. Sorry, but she be skanky. In next pic she is behind the pole. Probably not the first time.

tf2philly7.jpg tf2philly4.jpg

Then the mighty (annoying) Shia Labeouf came outside. You can see him sitting down in the yellow cap. Below you see Shia joined by John Turturro wearing a Butcher’s outfit. I didn’t get a picture of it, but I could see inside the shop, they had hung a sign that said “Cuppucci & Simmons”, so maybe he has become a butcher after the dissolution of Sector 7. I can only imagine this will be one of the film’s poor excuses for comic relief.

tf2philly5.jpg

And last but certainly not least we have director Michael Bay with his “AWESOME” hair and “AWESOME” half unbuttoned shirt. He sure is awesome.

tf2philly6.jpg

So that’s my tale of being around the filming of TF2. Hopefully there will be more to follow when they shoot at Penn later this week, cause dammit, I want to see the cars, not the fleshlings!

Thanks a lot to Josh for his report and the photos (reprinted with permission)
Tune in to Powet for more TF2 news, and listen to Y-Rock for more Rock!