China Gets Live-Action TRANSFORMERS Event From Team Behind SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK

A few years ago, the Broadway production Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark experienced setback after setback on its way to becoming the most expensive Broadway show of all time. Many actors were injured because of the high-flying technical stuntwork needed to pull of the Spider-Man moves, director Julie Taymor was forced out of the project, and the score (by Bono and The Edge, of U2) had to be reworked multiple times.

S2BN Entertainment, the company behind that production as well as the cancelled Marvel Experience live show, is teaming with Hasbro and Chinese company DMG to finance a live-action event in China called Transformers Live, which will be based on the Hasbro toys and presumably, to some extent, the subsequent Michael Bay movies. Deadline says the show will feature "real-life robots," and they have a quote from one of the producers:

“Transformers Live will be a cross between an action-adventure spectacle, a theme park attraction and a theatrical show,” said S2BN Entertainment chairman Michael Cohl. “Fans will experience intense action, beautiful visual moments, an emotionally engaging story, lots of humor and rousing music.”

As the site points out, Bay's Transformers movies are huge in China, with Age of Extinction once holding the record for highest-grossing film in the country. I suspect if this makes enough money overseas, they'll probably bring port it over to the U.S. to try to squeeze some more cash out of it, but considering the recent track record of the people involved, you'd have to pay me to watch this thing.

The show is assumed to open in an undisclosed Chinese city sometime in 2017. Would you pay to see this if it came to your city?

Via: io9