Steven Caple Jr., the film’s director, shared his experience of filming at the revered site of Machu Picchu for the new Transformers movie citing it wasn’t without its share of difficulties.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the seventh installment of the multibillion-dollar saga, was unveiled last week, featuring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback as its stars.
The film spared no effort visually, orchestrating an impressive car chase on the real Williamsburg Bridge in New York City, and even ascending to Machu Picchu in Peru for the ultimate face-off between Autobots.
Now, 35-year-old director Steven, who has also worked on films such as Creed II and The Land, unveiled how the crew managed to safeguard such a sacred site while capturing all the essential shots.
Filming at the enigmatic ancient Incan location was described as “difficult” by the filmmaker because cameras were not allowed to touch the “holy” ground – not even momentarily.
He also mentioned how they had to ‘suspend’ filming several times, once due to heavy fog and another time due to a frog.
In an interview with Metro.co.uk, Steven shared: ‘Machu Picchu is stunning, truly majestic. We filmed there for about two weeks, and it was challenging.
‘It was one of those situations where we had no control over the environment, with sudden rain and clouds obstructing our view, which led us to shut down the cameras.
‘We had to ensure none of the equipment touched the ground, everything was considered sacred so hauling the equipment, camera gear included, took us hours.
‘Even though filming there was a tough task, it was definitely worth it. It was an invaluable experience and I believe that we managed to capture the magic and a bit of the history of the place too.‘
The director proceeded to describe how the presence of a ‘venomous frog’ caused the crew to ‘clear’ the set and temporarily cease production for a day after it was found close to actress Dominique.
‘This frog, which we had been warned about, was spotted behind Dom, leading us to evacuate the set to locate the creature,’ he elaborated.
‘The encounter was quite daunting.’
As bats were fluttering about in a neighboring cave, they had to re-record all the sound in one part of the movie.
Optimus Prime is voiced by Peter Cullen, co-starring with Anthony, 31, and Dominique, 32, from Hamilton, with Pete Davidson performing Mirage.
In The Capture, Ron Perlman plays Optimus Primal, while in Everything, Everywhere, Michelle Yeoh enacts Airazor.
Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage gives an effective performance as the wicked adversary, Scourge.
Steven, however, has a preference for the Williamsburg Bridge scene, which involves a car chase with a unique twist.
‘What stands out to me is the scene where Anthony Ramos’ character, Noah learns about a robot during the car chase sequence,’ he detailed.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is currently screening in cinemas.
