|
'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' has been a summer hit, grossing $339.2 million in America in its first three weeks.
Chief Warrant Officer Geoff Mann (third from left) |
BY LAURA MOYER
Geoff Mann had just started his new job as a Black Hawk flight instructor for the Army National Guard when he got an unexpected assignment: Fly up to Pennsylvania and take part in the filming of the second "Transformers" movie.
The filmmakers had contracted with the Army National Guard in Richmond to send two Black Hawk helicopters and crew to help film some important nighttime scenes. But they were one pilot short, so Mann, a 35-year-old Fredericksburg native, filled in.
Over four days last spring near Bethlehem, Pa., Mann and his colleagues made several flights for the movie, carrying actors Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and other cast members to a scene in which they do battle with the Transformers of the title.
Later Mann talked up the experience, with a healthy dose of exaggeration. "I tried to tell my friends there was a love scene with Megan Fox, but they didn't buy it," Mann recalled. "My wife didn't find it that funny, either."
Mann, a 1992 graduate of James Monroe High School, is the son of Jim and Mary Mann of Fredericksburg. He met his wife, Becky, when both were students at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and they have two children, Jackson, 4, and Josie, 8 months.
After college, Mann soon realized his chosen profession as an industrial engineer wasn't a good fit. He enjoyed the work, "but I was too young and too stir-crazy to sit in a cubicle all day," he said.
Following his father's footsteps, he joined the National Guard in 2000 and went to flight school in 2003 to learn to fly military helicopters.
That has led to a friendly father-son rivalry. The elder Mann, a former associate managing editor of The Free Lance-Star, flew Huey helicopters during the Vietnam War and for many years afterward as a Guardsman.
Geoff Mann trained in Hueys but now flies Black Hawks. The two constantly rib each other about which aircraft is superior.
Geoff Mann served a 16-month deployment to Iraq, then returned home and eventually landed the flight-instructor job, based in Richmond. He is a chief warrant officer with the National Guard, but as a flight instructor he is a "federal technician," a civilian position.
During the filming, he said, he used night-vision goggles to navigate in darkness, just as he had during most of his Iraq flights. And just as the Black Hawks are used in war--to transport people and cargo--the ones in the movie were used to deliver the actors to specific spots where filming was taking place.
Though at least one scene was shot inside the helicopter Mann flew, he doesn't think he's identifiable in the movie. That didn't seem to make a difference to the Pennsylvanians who lined streets outside the filming area to catch a glimpse of movie people.
Mann said some onlookers asked him to pose for pictures, and at least one kid asked for an autograph, which he cheerfully gave.
But his biggest fan is son Jackson, who has a "Transformers" T-shirt that Becky Mann can barely pry off him to wash.
Geoff Mann hasn't yet seen the movie, whose full title is "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
But plenty of other people have. The movie has proven to be a blockbuster, grossing $339.2 million domestically in just its first three weeks.
Jackson hasn't seen the movie either--it's rated PG-13--but he's impressed that his dad is connected with it.
Mann said Jackson told his mom the other day, "Dad's pretty much a movie star, isn't he?"
It's great to be a star in his son's eyes, Mann said. "You can't ask more than that."
Laura Moyer: 540/374-5417
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com
