Autobots, roll out!

… To Marina Bay Sands for the red carpet world premiere of Transformers: Rise of The Beasts.

Attending the event on May 27 will be cast members Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback and Tobe Nwigwe, director Steven Caple Jr. and producers Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian.

AsiaOne had a chat with lead actor Anthony last week to give him a rundown on what to expect on our sunny island.

When asked if he had ever visited Singapore, the 31-year-old actor, best known for playing John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in the Broadway musical Hamilton, said no.

When we further asked him if anyone had given him any tips and tricks about what to do and see, he responded: "Nope, you'd be the first."

We explained to Anthony that Singapore is a tropical island near the equator where it's hot all year around, which made him reconsider the idea of wearing a suit to the red carpet event.

"I'm gonna come in swim trunks and slides then — maybe Gucci will hook me up with some slides," he mused. "Maybe I'll wear a hat."

He was also interested in learning about the beaches we have in Singapore so he could "hit them up" either before or after the premiere.

In typical Singaporean fashion, we had to let him know about the food available here, and asked whether he was adventurous with what he eats.

Anthony replied in the affirmative, so we told him about durians.

"Durian fruit sounds dangerous, like it's gonna make you grow a new ear out of your head or something," he said, before we even told him about its infamous scent.

When he learnt that it was perhaps the smelliest fruit in the world, Anthony was not deterred.

"I'm gonna smash that durian," he said.

However, he was concerned that he might "stink up the whole room" with farts afterwards, and might wait until after the premiere to eat the fruit.

Who's Anthony's favourite Transformer?

Anthony also told AsiaOne about what made Transformers: Rise of the Beasts great in his opinion — the diversity of the cast, which also includes Michelle Yeoh as Airazor, Pete Davidson as Mirage, Peter Dinklage as Scourge, Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal and Liza Koshy as Arcee.

With part of the story set in New York, Anthony was also proud that the human characters of the show — played by himself and Dominique — are actually from the city.

"I grew up in Brooklyn," he added.

Anthony plays Noah Diaz, an ex-military electronics expert determined to land a civilian job in Brooklyn. Dominique plays Elena Wallace, an archaeologist put in charge of a mysterious artefact that has arrived at the museum she works at.

Like many of us, Anthony also grew up watching Transformers and, coincidentally the Beast Wars arc, which Rise of the Beasts is based on, is his favourite.

"I'd wait every Saturday to watch it on TV," he said. "But [each episode] was only half an hour long, and then it'd be over."

Compared to that, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, set in the 1990s, gives us two hours and 27 minutes of the Autobots fighting the Decepticons, featuring the Maximals — descendents of the Autobots who take up animal forms, Predacons — their Decepticon counterparts — and Terrorcons, Decepticons that combine to form Abominus.

When it came to his favourite Transformer, Anthony picked another Beast Wars character featured in Rise of the Beasts, Cheetor (voiced by Tongayi Chirisa).

A young Maximal who is often cocky and rash, Cheetor takes the form of a cheetah, to nobody's surprise.

Thankfully, Optimus Primal is there to take Cheetor under his wing.

The Transformers: Rise of the Beasts red carpet event, accompanied by a pyrotechnic and projection mapping display, will be held on May 27 from 6 to 8pm at the waterfront between Marina Bay Sands and the ArtScience Museum.

Vantage points are near the main entrance of the Museum, the staircase leading up to the Helix Bridge, and the first two viewing pods of the Helix Bridge closest to Marina Bay Sands. In addition, there will be two LED screens broadcasting the event live at the lily pond outside the ArtScience Museum.

If you're more interested in the Transformers than the humans, a 4.5-metre life-sized statue of Mirage will be standing at the entrance of the ArtScience Museum between May 26 and 28 for a 'meet-and-greet'.

The movie will be in cinemas from June 8 with early-bird previews from June 7.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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