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Nelson, the admin of MB.com and general inside man on all things Michael Bay has posted a new update on the forums that says the Twins are not in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I am guessing the post is a response to an IO9 article that inexplicably brought them up when posting about the Daytona 500 TV spot. Nelson wrote:

Just a little update:

1.- Michael is NOT directing a movie starring Taylor Lautner. It's a project Platinum Dunes might produce.

2.- And for the final time the Twins are not in this movie period - end of story.

PS. I will have the DOTM 1080p Daytona ad tomorrow night.

Then later to the question "...thanks for the confirmation on the twins but why on set?" he replied "Different characters."

Not really sure what to make of this. Could be part of Bay's "misinformation campaign" except Nelson has not really participated in that. To my knowledge Nelson has not lied to fans but does not have a problem in making careful word choices in the information he conveys.

To review the history, on May 11th, 2010 Bay posted "The Twins are not back in T3." However, that same day the vehicles for Skids and Mudflap were spotted with a modified paint scheme. After that they were seen in Washington, DC, Chicago and Detroit. One thing to note is too my knowledge there has not been documented proof that the Twin vehicles where part of anything filmed out in the public in the various locations across the country even though did travel with the equipment caravan. Also Hasbro has created new toys the characters that seem to use new molds which is expensive compared with simply repainting the existing Revenge of the Fallen molds.

This leaves us with several theories. 1) The Twins are not in the film but the script did use them so the cars were brought along just in case Bay decided to keep their scenes, 2) The Twins were filmed but their scenes were left on the cutting room floor, 3) The Twins are in the film but not "as" the Twins but in some other capacity (say a disguise) making the statement above technically correct 4) The Twins do not appear in robot form and so the statement again remains technically true and 5) they die off screen. As always we will probably not learn until the film comes out in July.

As for the Taylor Lautner thing (one of the Twilight cast members), much like Steven Spielberg gets an executive producer credit for anything DreamWorks is involved with, Michael Bay gets the same credit for anything from Platinum Dunes regardless of how much or how little he is involved in the film. It is one of the benefits of being head honcho of a production company. Any site making more of it than that is simply trying to up their site hit count. Thanks to Chris for the link.

Update: Nelson has further elaborated on his Twin comments saying that theory 2 was the accurate one, with post that says, "I never said those cars weren't filmed. I just said they're not in the final film. Period." After that he wrote, "There are 2 new buddy characters in the film, how hard is that to understand? One of them is Wheelie and the other is.... You can speculate all you want on their alt modes." Yet another comment then says "Most of what is or is not in the film has been decided. There was a final cut [if I recall correctly] before the Holiday season last year." This means the film is deep into getting the CGI, sound mixing, color correction and so forth done as will need all the lead time they can get with the additional complication of 3D effects. Shortly after all that one more post on the subject as a summary of sorts:

Once upon a time the twins were in the script and they got cut.

There are now 2 new buddy characters who's alt modes I will not reveal.

Is that clear enough?

DarkWish in the comments posted to a video that shows the Twin vehicles being part of a scene in Chicago. I remember seeing that video and could have sworn I linked to it at the time but unable to find in previous posts. Any case while looking found another video that showed a near sequence with Prime, Sentinel, the Ferrari along with some NEST action. The street being shown is Van Buren, the building is the Old Post Office. Basically the various videos collaborate what Nelson posted. The Twins were going to be in the film but at some point Bay decided they were not necessary. Since Wheelie is almost a pure CGI creation, it isn't a stretch to assume his buddy is the same.

hmm i will believe it when i see the movie...

yeah it will be 2 "different" characters called k-skids and k-mudflap...

and ive heard all the $%^%^ about bay not using as much infantile humour...


well if you beleive that, i have a bridge to sell you.

i think we are in for stereotypes and leg humping aplenty with a side of flatulance and belching....

dont get me wrong i like the TF movies just fine but im in it for the robots and toys. and lets face it bay is no comedy writer...

Aw. I liked the twins. I guess the new guys are Bumblebee and the red car. I'm thinking it's Cliffjumper now.

So, they claim that Twins aren't in the Movie, yet we've seen pictures from scene, with two matching Chevy's, one with orange and the other with green stripes.

They should hang out with TFA Ramjet a little less often.

Red 50 wrote:So, they claim that Twins aren't in the Movie, yet we've seen pictures from scene, with two matching Chevy's, one with orange and the other with green stripes.

They should hang out with TFA Ramjet a little less often.

Yeah, and when I went to DC to see them film, I saw Mudflap and Skids there.

This is clearly misinformation.
We have SEEN the twins on set, we have SEEN the new toys of Skids that transform into the cars SEEN on set. The twins are obviously in the film, the only question is wether they will just be mostly background characters like Ratchet and Sideswipe were in the second movie.

This must be a misinformation campaign that's benn used since the first film.
Here's why:
1. We see two identical pre-production Chevy Sparks on set. The Spark is the production version of the Beat concept used for Skids in the last film. The only difference between these new cars is the color of the rally stripes, which correspond to the body colors of the two cars used for the twins in Revenge of the Fallen.
2. We've seen pictures of a deluxe class toy of the black and green twin with the same headsculpt design as Skids, as well as a strikingly similar robot mode. We've also seen a repaint of ROTF Human Alliance Skids with the same paint job as the Chevy Spark twin seen on set.

If these are new characters, these writers and designers are extremely lacking in the originality department.

How is it misinformation people?

"I never said those cars weren't filmed. I just said they're not in the final film. Period."

The cars were on set.
The cars were filmed.
The footage will not be used - meaning the Skids and Mudflap didn't make the final cut.

As for toys being out there, obviously Skids and Mudflap were intended to be in the movie, Hasbro then developed figures for them, but they've since been cut.

Perfectly plausible to me.

If it's misinformation, seems a pretty crappy topic to misinform on given the "evidence" to the contrary. So if it is crap, I look at it more as Bay & Co. stirring the fanboy pot more than information.

Dance for them people, dance.

I'm not a fan of the twins but I'm also not a hater of them. Saying that, I will be disappointed if they are killed off screen. I don't even want them killed off. I think Bay and his writers are going about it the wrong way killing yet another characer off screen.

Burn wrote:How is it misinformation people? Yadda, Yadda, Yadda... Dance for them people, dance.

Burn's got the right idea on this.

If you know Bay, or movie making, the way so many of you think/claim you do, you would know Nelson isn't lying.

The easy answer is if the Twins will be in the movie, it will be alt modes only AND you won't get to see them until you pop in the Dvd Bonus disc from DotM.

The long answer is EVERY film maker overshoots. Before editing, most movies are LotR's in length at the end of principle shooting. The crew plows through the hours of takes and cuts the crap that slows down the story/character development... The infamous cutting room floor.

Bay loves the cutting room floor and I can prove it. http://www.SHOOTfortheEDIT.com.

Why drop them? Who knows for sure? Well, Nelson would, but he's not here. However, it could be something as simple as General Motors bouncing their check or something complicated like the removal of a sub-plot when a cast member exited the film. [remember the rumored humans vs autobots scenes that Megan Fox and the twins were supposedly involved with?]

Bottom line is this. They are gone, for better or worse. If you don't like that you have no control, welcome to life. If you want to whine about, I'm with Burn...

"Dance for them people, Dance!"

PS- For the Record, I think Bay is F'n Awesome. I'm not a fan of his films, but I worship his professional work ethic.

(reaches for top hat, puts on tails and picks up cane)

well you see i dont think toys are a good indicator of what characters will and wont be in the movie. toy maketing is just like that. how many ROTF toy characters did you see in ROTF? yeah, that what i mean.

also, i tottally understand the argument of the cutting room floor. and i think the twins altmodes showing up on set does not necasarily mean they will be in the film...

HOWEVER, i dont beleive for one nano-secound that bay can control himself in the way of BS toddler humour. and the over use of character stereotypes. (i still dont think the twins were supposed to be black, i think bay was going for the "gangsta" stereotype which is not confined to a single race)like i said, sure the twins might not be in the film, but i bet there will be two annoying, related (through appearance at least)slapstick, sidekick, super over-simplified stereotype characters. so... in a nutshell the twins... they may not be called skids and mudflap but it will be them...

im not that bothered really, the twins didnt irratate me as badly as i thought the would, and hey i think the icecream truck (toy) is frikken awesome. and as you all probably know by now (gets on soap box and clears throat)im in it for the toys.

and hey say what you will about the twins and wheelie, but after jar jar binks they just pale in comparison...

sigh, good old jar jar setting the bench mark for rage induceing annoyance...

We saw a toy of Jolt, too, gang- have we seen the vehicle? (according to Nelson, the new blue car is EinsteinBot).

Personally, I'm pretty disgusted with the way Bay decided TF fans are few and far between, invented his own fantastic take on TFs, which got accepted by us, and then just wrote them off, the same way he just wrote off Megan Fox for raising an eyebrow at him.

Oh well. Thank you for bringing this news to our attention. I've read the whole thread carefully and will watch the movie and enjoy it to the fullest, and hope for the best for Jolt, Arcee, Mikaela and now Skidz and Mudflap as well. Flippin' shambles.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:Personally, I'm pretty disgusted with the way Bay decided TF fans are few and far between,

Compared to all those that went to the previous movies which helped them earn so much money, we are few and far between.

Autobot Smoketreader wrote:We saw a toy of Jolt, too, gang- have we seen the vehicle? (according to Nelson, the new blue car is EinsteinBot).

Personally, I'm pretty disgusted with the way Bay decided TF fans are few and far between, invented his own fantastic take on TFs, which got accepted by us, and then just wrote them off, the same way he just wrote off Megan Fox for raising an eyebrow at him.

Oh well. Thank you for bringing this news to our attention. I've read the whole thread carefully and will watch the movie and enjoy it to the fullest, and hope for the best for Jolt, Arcee, Mikaela and now Skidz and Mudflap as well. Flippin' shambles.

Or maybe he doesn't want to deal with all the racist accusation crap anymore.
The "fans" were a big contributor to that too.

I'm tired of it. I won't know what to believe until I see footage of the twins in a new trailer or I DON'T. I personally didn't want them back; I hated all of the humour in the second movie as it was very juvenile and made me uncomfortable when I was watching it with my family. I've never seen a more blatant stereotype than the Twins (especially aesthetically), and I just wish someone would run Wheelie over. Obviously the humour was supposed to appeal to a certain demographic - I'm 16, and I just felt offended, as if I was supposed to laugh at it just because I'm a 'young person'. ALL directors do this: once they realize that people are going to see the movie pretty much no matter what, they'll put whatever they want in there. I was greatly hoping that the Twins and Wheelie would be absent from this movie, but hey, its not about what WE want.

Only a moron would believe this guy. We've already seen the twins on set, heck we've seen DOTM Skids toys in movie colors!!

Slashercon wrote:Only a moron would believe this guy. We've already seen the twins on set, heck we've seen DOTM Skids toys in movie colors!!

Burn wrote:

Nelson wrote:"I never said those cars weren't filmed. I just said they're not in the final film. Period."

The cars were on set.
The cars were filmed.
The footage will not be used - meaning the Skids and Mudflap didn't make the final cut.

As for toys being out there, obviously Skids and Mudflap were intended to be in the movie, Hasbro then developed figures for them, but they've since been cut.

Guess i'm a moron then.

Burn wrote:

Slashercon wrote:Only a moron would believe this guy. We've already seen the twins on set, heck we've seen DOTM Skids toys in movie colors!!

Guess i'm a moron then.

That you are.
I only tease, I know very well that I am a moron.

MQ-9 Reaper wrote:I'm tired of it. I won't know what to believe until I see footage of the twins in a new trailer or I DON'T. I personally didn't want them back; I hated all of the humour in the second movie as it was very juvenile and made me uncomfortable when I was watching it with my family. I've never seen a more blatant stereotype than the Twins (especially aesthetically), and I just wish someone would run Wheelie over. Obviously the humour was supposed to appeal to a certain demographic - I'm 16, and I just felt offended, as if I was supposed to laugh at it just because I'm a 'young person'. ALL directors do this: once they realize that people are going to see the movie pretty much no matter what, they'll put whatever they want in there. I was greatly hoping that the Twins and Wheelie would be absent from this movie, but hey, its not about what WE want.

Well, it seems we have something in common here. We're both 16 and hate toilet humour. But I actually liked the Twins. I think they're stereotyped, but not racist. I thought of them as "gangsta". To be honest, I know white guys that talk and act like them and black guys that don't- so I can't personally find racism. The Wheelie humping and all the sexual references could've been done away with, but hey, it is what it is. It doesn't effect the film the slightest bit for me. And yes, directors will do whatever they want. It's THEIR movie. THEY'RE the director of it. It's not about what we want. It's what they think will sell. Unfortunately, these moviemakers have an impression that this toilet humor sells to young people. And, with the people that surround me every day, I see where they get that impression. We must also understand that Michael Bay isn't some dictator that specifies exactly how absolutely everything will go. He has writers, too, along with a myriad of other roles that come up with their own ideas.

Are they in or are they out? Since early on in production Michael Bay's camp has insisted that Skids and Mudflap would not be appearing in Transformers DOTM. That seemed to be debunked when a pair of Skids and Mudflap inspired Chevy Sparks were spotted during filming.





The discovery of a brand new mold Deluxe Skids for the upcoming DOTM toy line seemed to bolster the idea that they would be returning to the third film.



Site admin nelson of Michael Bay's Shoot for the Edit forums begs to differ. In fact he is quite adamant that they have been cut from the film.

Being a toy doesn't guarantee a place in the movie. In fact, being filmed doesn't guarantee being in the final cut.

I never said those cars weren't filmed. I just said they're not in the final film. Period.

As we all know Michael Bay likes misinformation campaigns. Are the twins in or out? Join the discussion in the Energon Pub!

I'm gonna be honest - I really wished the twins weren't in ROTM that was my only gripe about the film...that and Devastators balls.

I'm probably one of the few who don't actually hate the twins, so it doesn't bother me one way the another. I'm more bothered by the fact that Leo and his bad acting is back.

The toys don't really give any hints at all, because tons of ROTF fig that made it as toys were never seen in the film. Then again, those characters like Breakaway never went beyond the character design concept stage, whereas the twins' alt modes were seen quite a few times on set.

But if I have to make a guess, I'd say the twins likely to be in the film. I can't really say why, but Bay's a particularly mischievous person [read: over-aged fratboy] who likes to pull one over your eyes as a prank, and he openly admits to this in the DVD commentary of the 2007 movie.

Besides, they'd probably just hover around in the background much like Jolt did in ROTF, as many have already proposed.

Oh no, the twins won't be in the movie... I'm devastated, they had such a great plot to them, and great character development, not to mention they were the most intelligent autobots and were clearly the stars of Revenge of the Fallen.

If you havn't guessed yet, I'm being totally sarcastic XD and the only reason why i actually care if they are in the movie or not is just to prevent those "racist" "stereotypical" characters they were most likely intentionally portrayed as by the director himself.

And besides......... The whole reason they were probably in the movie was because they were Bay's Frankenstein-creation of comedic-relief.

MQ-9 Reaper wrote:I'm tired of it. I won't know what to believe until I see footage of the twins in a new trailer or I DON'T. I personally didn't want them back; I hated all of the humour in the second movie as it was very juvenile and made me uncomfortable when I was watching it with my family. I've never seen a more blatant stereotype than the Twins (especially aesthetically), and I just wish someone would run Wheelie over. Obviously the humour was supposed to appeal to a certain demographic - I'm 16, and I just felt offended, as if I was supposed to laugh at it just because I'm a 'young person'. ALL directors do this: once they realize that people are going to see the movie pretty much no matter what, they'll put whatever they want in there. I was greatly hoping that the Twins and Wheelie would be absent from this movie, but hey, its not about what WE want.

I agree. While I'm way past my teenage years, I'm not adverse to crass jokes when they're funny; the ones in ROTF were NOT funny [to me, at least], just distasteful.

Wheelie's leg-humping did make me laugh a little, but it did make me wonder about the logic of a bot with no discernible genitalia being sexually attracted to a human female. Sure Megan's hot, but that's kinda pushing it.

I am apprehensive. Blackout died in the first movie but a virtual clone came back for the second and many other decepticons were reused for multiple nameless characters. Even if the twins are not in the movie by name or have no speaking roles I have a feeling we will see them -or lookalikes- in the background as a cost saving measure for filling autobot ranks.