GM will be well-represented in the upcoming Transformers sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Four new bowtie-badged concepts have found their way onto the big screen, including "Sideswipe," an Autobot who is a dead ringer for the Corvette Stingray concept shown above.
The major product placements are a coup for GM, who is hoping to repeat its success with product placement in the first film. That movie starred a 2010 Camaro as Bumblebee, and GM's already sold 20,000 of those -- though we fear the GMC TopKick may suffer the same fate as Ironhide. The other concepts in the new film are the Chevy Volt, Trax, and Beat -- the last of which is very similar to the preproduction Chevy Spark. Viewers need not worry, as all the cars are on the right side of the great Autobot-Decepticon battle.
Chevy North America VP Ed Peper and GM Global Design VP Ed Welburn highlighted the concepts at the Chicago Auto Show during a live movie trailer press conference Wednesday. Best news of all for the recently bailed-out company? "It didn't cost us a thing," according to Peper.
According to sources from GM and the Transformers production team, the collaboration was borne from mutual admiration. The Detroit News reports that the Stingray had it's Schwab's Drug Store moment when director Michael Bay spotted the provocative concept in a GM design studio and begged the General to let the 'Vette come to Hollywood.
A last-minute addition to the film was "Jolt," a blue Chevy Volt that skirted the original audition process when GM pulled some strings. "We put him in before production started, during the mad dash to get a shooting draft ready," screenwriter Roberto Orci told Transformer World 2005. "But we always knew we WANTED to put him in from early on when we saw the design and realized it was a truly unique car."
The Beat and Trax are the automotive equivalent of Alec and Stephen Baldwin, starring as Skids and Mudflap, respectively. The hot hatches debuted together in 2007 along with the Chevy Groove which, like Daniel Baldwin, is mysteriously absent from the film.
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