Summer Recap | 'Transformers 2' filmed on campus in June

Filming of the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took place on campus June 10-15, drawing large crowds of passersby struck by the Hollywood scene and hoping to catch a glimpse of the film's director Michael Bay and star actor Shia LeBeouf.

The Transformers 2 production crew was "overwhelmed" by their reception at Penn, University spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said. "From all accounts, they were thrilled with the filming," she said, noting that their willingness to film during the summer "made it much more viable."

Dreamworks Pictures compensated the University for filming on campus, paying a location fee and reimbursing for expenses, Holtzman said.

Filming took place at the Psi Upsilon fraternity house, also known as "The Castle," as well as in the Quadrangle.

During filming, the entrance to The Castle was surrounded by multiple motion-picture cameras and lighting fixtures, as well as dozens of extras waiting to be summoned for filming. A mock advertisement for a fraternity party was displayed above the entrance during a portion of the filming.

Late one afternoon, the transformer "Bumblebee," a yellow Chevrolet Camaro, was escorted onto the scene by Philadelphia Police. A beige tarp covered the body of the car, its chrome rims sparkling from below.

During filming, Penn's distinctive "Love" sculpture was camouflaged by a leaf net, fueling a widespread campus rumor that the college of choice for the film was not Penn but long-time rival Princeton University.

Despite the rumor, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said the school featured in the film would remain unnamed.

Though Di Bonaventura is a 1986 Wharton graduate school almunus, he says that his degree did not play a role in selecting Penn as a filming site. Rather, a location scout chose the Castle and the Quad because their characteristics satisfied producers' wants and because of Penn's central location.

Filming has since taken place at a steel factory in Bethlehem, Pa., Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Also Shia LeBeouf sustained extensive injuries to the hand in a car accident in Los Angeles on July 27 that were expected to delay filming for up to one month, according to the New York Daily News.

Transformers 2 is not the only movie that has been filmed at Penn. The 1993 drama Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, depicted Fisher Fine Arts Library as a law library. Franklin Field was used in the 2000 film Unbreakable and the 2006 film Invincible and the filming of 1995 picture Twelve Monkeys took place at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Transformers 2 is scheduled for release in summer 2009.

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