Director Michael Bay has a big fan in Anthony Hopkins, which explains why he joined the cast of “Transformers: The Last Knight,” the blockbuster film franchise’s fifth installment.
Hopkins’ impression of Bays after discussing the film over breakfast was simple: “I thought, ‘This guy’s a genius, he really is,’” the actor told Yahoo Movies at CinemaCon last week. “He’s the same ilk as Oliver Stone and [Steven] Spielberg and [Martin] Scorsese. Brilliance. Savants, really, they are. He’s a savant.”
The filmmakers are just as thrilled as Hopkins about the collaboration, as apparent in their announcement last June of his casting. “The man, the myth, the legend – help us welcome Sir Anthony Hopkins to the #transformers universe,” they tweeted from the “Transformers” Twitter account.
In “Last Knight,” Sir Anthony stars as another “sir” — Sir Edmund Burton, an astronomer/historian who lives on a luxurious country estate with free-roaming Autobots. Mark Wahlberg reprises his role as engineer Cade Yaeger from “Age of Extinction,” as does Stanley Tucci as tech industrialist Joshua Joyce.
This latest “Transformer” go-round centers on a world where humans and Transformers are at war. Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), the leader of the good Transformers known as the Autobots, has left Earth to search for his creators. He returns and attacks Bumblebee, one of his closest Autobot allies.
Since the first “Transformers” movie premiered back in 2009, the franchise has gone on to gross over $1.3 billion globally.
“Transformers: The Last Knight” will open in theaters on June 23, 2017.
Watch the interview above.