Ed Harris is currently in talks to join Michael Bay’s Pain and Gain.  Michael Bay has been developing Pain and Gain  for a few years now and it seems he is finally getting it off the ground.

Pain and Gain is being described as “Michael Bay’s Fargo“.  The story centers on a group of bumbling bodybuilders in Miami who plot to kidnap and rob a wealthy businessman. Unfortunately,  the crime goes awry. The wealthy businessman is left for dead, but returns to exact revenge on the bodybuilding thugs with the help of a private investigator.

According to Vulture, even though no formal offer has been made, Harris is very likely to sign on to play the private investigator.

Pain and Gain has been put on hold repeatedly because of Bay’s prior commitments to the Transformers franchise. Both Paramount and Spielberg want Bay to return for a fourth Transformers film. It’s believed that they could offer help with getting Pain and Gain off the ground if he does return to the franchise.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is also set to star in Bay’s Pain and Gain. During a press junket for Journey 2 , Johnson stated that Pain and Gain was “on the right track.”

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In a world of constant changing protagonists, there seems to be one winner when it comes to the summer movie blockbuster season. That winner is Michael Bay’s transforming robots known as the Autobots. In its second weekend of release, Transformers 3 still managed to stay strong at #1 with an astounding $47 Million.

The film is staying strong not only in the US, but has pulled in upwards of $645 Million worldwide. Also opening this weekend, Warner’s Horrible Bosses didn’t make much of an impact with an estimated $28 Million.

Finally, and in the #3 spot this weekend, Sony’s The Zookeeper managed to draw something of an audience, with $21 Million over the weekend, and an average of $6,000 per screen. About a fourth of its $80 Million budget, so you can expect Kevin James to cause trouble in yet another occupation in the near future.

Even thought Transformers blew up for the past 2 weeks, and has made over half a billion dollars worldwide, that’s nothing in comparison to what the final Harry Potter film will do next weekend.

Opening in over 4,200 screens across the US, you can expect the film to blow this last Transformers film out of the water in the first weekend, let alone the worldwide net of the film going forward.

The score for the first Michael Bay Transformers movie was something of a shock. I wasn’t expecting much from the movie, and I anticipated even less from the movie’s score. In fact, I expected something more like incomprehensible metal percussions and minimalism in the theme department.

What Steve Jablonsky delivered was nothing short of a revelation, I had a perfect  cinematic music moment during the arrival to earth scene. A moment where the music, movie and context of my own life all blended together for one transcendent moment.  This has only happened three other times in my life, and the composers responsible were named Wiliams, Goldsmith and Shore. So believe me when I say I really liked the music of the first film.

Then came Transformers 2, an abomination of truly grand proportions. The score was solid, but unspectacular. It had none of the awe and wonder that made made the first film’s music such a joy. In the absence of that we got instrumental Linkin Park! Whoop!

Now I understand a film that is second in a franchise isn’t going to have that same freshness, but I was expecting so much better. So now here we are at Transformers 3, Jablonsky has returned with almost everyone else and I am more than curious to hear what he has to offer.

Last week I gave you a review where I hadn’t seen the movie (well TV show actually), now this week I am giving you a review where I saw the movie first before I listend to the score album. In the movie, the music wasn’t as dominant as it was in the first film, but it was far more enjoyable than the last film’s score.

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Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Now that Transformers 3 has made some of the most money in theaters this year, a few people are claiming that Michael Bay ripped himself off with re-rendered scenes from The Island.

• Who needs new formulas when we’ve got something as classic and plentiful as the Final Destination franchise. Here’s an example with the newest trailer for #5.

• Ladies, swimsuit season is right around the corner, and with these Monster Bikinis, you’ll definitely be the talk of the geeky town.

• Forbes recently uncovered that Sarah Jessica Parker is the highest paid actress in Hollywood. The weird part is that she’s only payed in sugar cubes and carrots…

• Sad to see a few favorites on this list, but here are the top 10 biggest flops of 2011 so far. (We still have to get through Captain America)

• Jon Hamm is a man of many emotions, and you can see them all in the Jon Hamm Emotions Challenge!

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Movie fans and studio execs alike both know the importance of the Independence Day weekend. It’s the coveted 3 days during which the most amount of money is made for the year. And for almost all 3 films in the Transformers franchise, Michael Bay has held that special spot.

As if we didn’t know it was going to happen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was #1 this weekend, with a whopping 6 days covering its “opening weekend” (Wednesday to Monday) and pulling in over $180 Million domestically and an estimated $218 Million overseas.

Continuing its popularity from last weekend, Disney’s Cars 2 stayed strong at the #2 spot with $26 Million, followed by Cameron Diaz’s foray back into comedy with Bad Teacher bringing in $14.5 Million.

Also opening this weekend was the hugely disappointing romantic comedy Larry Crowne, with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. It came in fourth place with $14 Million. Finally, the Leighton Meester/Selena Gomez vehicle Monte Carlo came in at #6 with $7.4 Million.

Next weekend, we expect a bit of a lull with Zoo Keeper and Horrible Bosses opening, giving us just enough time to cleanse our collective pallets for July 15th’s Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is expected to have the biggest opening of the year, and possibly putting Michael Bay and his toys to shame.

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Just because they seem to be running out of ideas that aren’t hand-delivered to them by either Marvel or Pixar, Disney is now working on a feature length film based on their Matterhorn ride. Let’s hope this one doesn’t spawn as many sequels as Pirates.

• Both No Strings Attached starring Ashton Kutcher and Friends With Benefits starring Mila Kunis are eerily similar. How similar? Here’s a mashup trailer to prove it.

• Diablo Cody is stepping away from her hamburger-shaped typewriter and behind her hamburger-shaped camera as she takes on directing Lamb of God.

• In honor of his newest masterpiece hitting theaters, here is the premise to every Michael Bay film in under 60 seconds.

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When asked about his role in Jaws 4: The Revenge, Michael Caine once said, “I never saw it—but I saw the house it paid for, and it’s fantastic!” I suspect John Turturro’s been saying something similar for the past four years whenever he’s asked about the Transformers movies. Now we can add John Malkovich and Frances McDormand to that group. And maybe Alan Tudyk.

The plot is as labyrinthine as it is unnecessary. Back in the early 1960s, a ship from war-torn Cybertron (if the Transformers spend all their time fighting, how did they ever evolve?) crashed on the moon. Among the cargo were several “Pillars” that have some sort of significance to the war.

Also, a big, tough Autobot named Sentinal Prime. The White House gets wise to this, and thus we have the impetus for the moon landing (apparently, many historical events were due to Transformers; they don’t get around to revealing that car in which Kennedy was shot was an Autobot, but there may be a fourth film).

Fast-forward to the present day, where the Autobots are now working for the Feds to preserve humanity (how did we ever get along without them?). While on a mission to Chernobyl, Optimus Prime discovers some remnant of the Pillars and decides that it’s high time to revive Sentinal. Also, the Pillars are somehow able to teleport things, which means that it can be used to bring an army of invading Decepticons to earth (according to Frances McDormand, National Intelligence Director).

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If you’ve been counting the weeks, days, hours, minutes and second until the third Transformers movie hits theaters and destroys everything in its path, the amount you have to count has just gotten smaller. That’s right, the release date for everyone’s favorite movie where robots blow stuff up has been moved up.

Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark Of The Moon has been moved to Wednesday, June 29th from Friday, July 1st. The studio’s big Summer 2011 blockbuster will open day and date in all markets except China and Japan on that new date.

According to Deadline, Paramount is apparently pretty psyched for the movie. “Early response to footage, especially the 3D footage, has been great so we want to get the word out that this film is as good or better than the first and much better than the last.”

We’ll see, Mr. Bay. We’ll see.

You know you can tell a good trailer when 90% of it is all doom and gloom. That’s just what we’re getting with the first full-length feature trailer for Michael Bay’s Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.

If you’re just now coming into the franchise or you have already forgotten the robot balls from Revenge of the Fallen, here’s the official synopsis.

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.

This trailer gives us all of the goods: tons of destruction, introduction of both the human and robot villain, and lots of visible robot battling. Joining the regular cast of humans this time is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, John Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, and the always evil Frances McDormand.

Take a look at the brand new trailer after the jump, and get ready for Transformer action (and hopefully Dinobots) on July 1st.

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon has a tough road ahead to win back the hearts and minds of all the fans Revenge of the Fallen disappointed in 2009. The second Transformers film might have been a financial success, but it failed on just about every other level.

Michael Bay needs to up his awesome this time around and he might have just played his ace in the hole. However, this might help.

EW is reporting that Leonard Nimoy is set to be the voice behind Sentinel Prime in the forthcoming film. This new character is Optimus’ predecessor and was the transformer featured in the first teaser trailer.

Nimoy is no stranger to the transformer universe, having already provided the voice for Galvatron in the mid-80s animated classic Transformers: The Movie. Michael Bay has been eyeing Nimoy for a voice role since the last film, but had some reservations.

“I was too scared to ask him,” the director says. “Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful. I’ve met him at family functions. But he told me, ‘I would be honored. I’m glad to be back!’”

This is not the first news of Nimoy returning to the acting world after he recently retired. Hopefully this means he will also return to the another of the mega geek franchises he is known for. I eagerly anticipate an updated Ballad of Bilbo Baggins for the new Hobbit films!

Since the title was leaked for Michael Bay’s upcoming third installment of the Transformers franchise, people everywhere have been scratching their heads trying to figure out how a title as silly as Dark of the Moon will apply to our favorite robots in disguise. Thankfully, we now have a bit of a plot outline that will help us link the two. Or not.

In a recent synopsis for the upcoming novel companion to the film, the plot (or at least something close to it) was spelled out.

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime ‘Transformers’ character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

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I Am Number Four is a movie based on a young-adult novel written by James Frey (of A Million Little Pieces fame.) It is an action/thriller about a teen (played by Alex Pettyfer) who is running for his life, frequently changing identities and bouncing from town to town to elude his would-be assassins.

Official Synopsis: John (Alex Pettyfer) is an extraordinary teen, masking his true identity and passing as a typical high school student to elude a deadly enemy seeking to destroy him. Three like him have already been killed…he is Number Four.

D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, Eagle Eye) directs the film, which also stars Timothy Olyphont. It is produced by Michael Bay.

The movie I Am Number Four will not be coming out until February, but we have a new featurette from Dreamworks to share with you.

In this clip, Caruso explains how nine children were sent to earth from another planet and hidden amongst the general population. The nine have special powers, but they do not know exactly what those are.  You can see the clip after the jump.

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