Hollywood features Airmen as extras in upcoming movie

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Andrew Dumboski
  • 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (ACCNS) --  There’s more than meets the eye to the 65 Nellis Airmen who played small roles in the as-yet untitled Transformers action movie, currently being filmed.

The Airmen played the roles of Army medivac troops and commandos for the DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures production at Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas. The movie is slated for release July 4, 2007.

“We’re playing background characters,” said Staff Sgt. Charles Davis, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron aircrew resource manager. “I played a Hoover-Dam security guard yesterday, and today I play a Sector-7 commando.”

Nellis’ involvement in the picture is part of a larger cooperation between the Air Force and the Department of Defense. Army Blackhawks, MQ-1 Predators, F-22A Raptors, CV-22 Ospreys, A-10 Warthogs and F-117 Nighthawks are just some of the military aircraft that appear in the film, said Capt. Christian Hodge, the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office’s project officer for the film.

“The Air Force is fully engaged in the film,” he said. “It’s had the most Air Force involvement of any movie since Air Force One.”

The production team spent two weeks at Holloman AFB, N.M., and the Army’s co-located White Sands Missile Range, where major portions of the movie were filmed. Also at Holloman, a combat controller was brought in to train the actor playing the Air Force character on the mannerisms and language of the career field.

“The working relationship with the Air Force is fantastic,” said Ian Bryce, one of the producers of Transformers. “It’s just been a first-class relationship from beginning to end, and one that the director, Michael Bay, and I are very protective of. We wanted to portray the military in the strongest possible light, and I think we are.”

Accuracy is a primary reason for the Defense Department’s involvement in a film, said Army Col. Dan Wolfe, Department of Defense project officer for this production. “We want to make sure the film gives a true and accurate depiction of the military.”

However, that’s not to say that the Defense Department tries to censor what the film says.

“The Department of Defense will support a movie even if it doesn’t portray the military in the most positive light, as long as the portrayal is accurate,” Colonel Wolfe said. “The more authentic a movie can be, the better that movie will appear to the audience.”