‘Transformers’ chasing ‘Furious 8’ to become 2017’s biggest live-action car movie

Following April’s “Fate of the Furious” June 21 debut, “Transformers: The Last Knight” looks to overtake its billion dollar box office haul, and while the two movies have locations and budgets in common, there are surprisingly few vehicles that pop up in both car-centric films.

Eighth in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, April 2017’s “Fate of the Furious” roared to a $1.23 billion return on a $250 million budget.

At $260 million and as a fifth franchise entry, “The Last Knight” needs upwards of $1.25bn to overtake both “Fate” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” to become 2017’s highest-grossing film to date.

Whereas its immediate predecessor, “Transformers: Age of Extinction”, was noted for its courting of Chinese audiences and financiers, its immediate successor spends much of its time in England, Scotland and Ireland, just as 2013’s “Furious 6” was set in London.

And like “The Fate of the Furious”, “The Last Knight” also took time to film in Cuba following the renewal of United States-Cuban relations in 2015.

Both franchises have become noted for their use of sports and muscle cars. The “Transformers” remit extends to include trucks, military vehicles, emergency services, motorcycles and helicopters, but there’s surprisingly little crossover between “Furious 8” and “the Last Knight”.

In fact, ahead of “The Last Knight”‘s debut, only a handful of manufacturers are expected to appear in both movies.

Lamborghini is one brand doubling up on the opportunity, with the Murciélago LP640 prominent in “F8″‘s arctic sequence, while the Centenario special edition becomes Omar Sy character Hot Rod for “The Last Knight”. Two marques provide the same models for both films, but in each case vehicles are separated by decades of development.

Chevrolet’s Corvette was introduced in 1953 and the C2, a second-generation version produced between 1963 and 1967, is used in “F8”; it’s the current seventh-gen C7 Stingray that becomes part of the main “Last Knight” cast.

It’s Volkswagen’s Type 2 van that straddles the greatest historical divide.

A contemporary edition was airborne for a moment in “F8” while the line’s 1950s ancestor occupies a more significant role in “The Last Knight” as Dreadbot, a Transformer on the antagonists’ side.

But Mercedes-AMG went one better by supplying near-identical roadsters for the two films.

Its GT S was involved in one of the “F8” set pieces, part of a collective effort to keep a Plymouth Road Runner in check, while in “The Last Knight” its 2017 variant, the even more powerful GT R, becomes Ken Watanabe’s character Drift. JB

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