Downtime was no stranger Tuesday for the cast and crew of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which was filming at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Trucks marked as belonging to Paramount Motion Pictures and cast and crew could be seen at the "Boneyard," where retired aircraft are kept, off South Kolb Road.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

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Under a cloak of secrecy worthy of the Decepticons, the production of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" began a two-day shoot in town Tuesday at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, known as the Boneyard.

Shooting in Tucson wraps today at Tucson International Airport.

Publicists for DreamWorks wouldn't acknowledge the production, and worked with Davis-Monthan Air Force Base security to keep news media and onlookers away from the set. No one associated with the film, Davis-Monthan, the Boneyard, or even the Tucson Film Office would speak on the record about the movie.

Tuesday afternoon, the production, complete with cameras, cranes and boom microphones, was visible from the roadside of South Kolb Road south of East Escalante Road. A phalanx of 15 trucks and vans, some of them marked Paramount Motion Pictures, DreamWorks' parent company, stood between the set and the chain-link fence lining the road. Traffic whizzed by obliviously.

At the Boneyard entrance gate, security guards turned away unauthorized vehicles.

The film, directed by Michael Bay and starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson, will be released June 26. It's almost certain to be a blockbuster because it returns the cast and filmmakers from the "Transformers," released in 2007, which hauled in $708 million in worldwide box office grosses.

The film series, about battles between good and evil robots that can transform into vehicles, is based on the 1980s cartoon show and its accompanying toy line.