Red Bull Live Action for Transformers Premiere
The red carpet of the Miami film premiere of Transformers: Dark of the Moon was cluttered with umbrellas this evening. The film’s talent in attendance included Executive Producer and Director, Michael Bay and actor Tyrese Gibson who plays USAF Master Sergeant Robert Epps.
Unlike most premieres, other talent in the film transformed the traditional red carpet with an entrance from the rainy sky. JT Holmes and three members of the Red Bull Air Force skydiving team – Jon DeVore, Andy Farrington, and Mike Swanson – jumped from a helicopter 2,000 feet above the red carpet, unleashed their parachutes, and performed high-speed landings on the wet intersection of Lincoln Drive and Alton Road where they were greeted by Bay.
“Live action, that’s the way it goes,” Bay said from the red carpet. “These wingsuit guys that we used, I saw them on ’60 Minutes’ and I said I want to be the first director to put them in an action scene. We got them flying between buildings at 150 mph through Chicago. It’s hard stuff to film, you need a lot of experts to do that and you need a lot of cahones as well. Those guys are a rare breed, there are very few people in the world who can do that.”
In the film, the jumpers performed all of the live action wingsuit proximity flying. In this type of specialized human flight, the skydivers wear a jumpsuit that essentially acts as “wings” allowing BASE jumps in places where they would have previously been impossible, as well as the ability to skim along the faces of cliffs and buildings.
In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the team speeds closely past buildings in downtown Chicago including, for the first time ever, a BASE jump off of the Sears Tower.
“Michael Bay is one of the last live action directors out there,” said Jon DeVore as he made his way through the press line. “So he contacted JT Holmes to put together a team to do this, and with a lot of raw flying he made magic.”
Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us.
The Red Bull Air Force is a team assembled from experienced skydivers, BASE jumpers, wingsuit fliers, and paraglider pilots. The team members combine for over 100,000 skydives and 6,000 BASE jumps.
Throughout the year they perform more than 60 demos including air shows, NFL games, and NASCAR and motocross races, as well as skydiving, BASE jumping, and paragliding competitions in the U.S. and abroad. www.redbullairforce.com
Red Bull made this announcement today, July 1.
