Transformers Producer Interviews from Latinoreview

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http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=124398

Don Murphy

On Set Interview: Producer Don Murphy On Transformers
Date: February 21, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Latino Review

At what point did the technology get to where you felt that you could do this as a viable project? Murphy: The answer I think would be that it's still becoming viable, I believe, as we're going along. I think that when Tom DeSanto and I first envisioned this two and a half years ago we saw that there were so many leaps and bounds, and you've probably seen the Citro commercial and all these other sort of viral online and Transformer type things that we knew it was headed that way. Since we started this project, since Michael [Bay] has come onto the project, I'd say in the last year really the technology has kind of caught up to it. Once you see what ILM is doing you'll actually believe that your car is a robot. You'll be pretty excited.
Can you talk about the scene that they're shooting outside today?
Murphy: This scene today, and well, I don't want to give too much away about the story, but the scene today is part of the conclusion of the movie. I don't know if anyone has described the basic structure of the movie, but it's very much like one of those big epic disaster movies where you have five different threads and today is a sequence where almost all of the threads now, the Josh Duhamel and the Shia LaBeouf and the Tyrese [Gibson] – all of the threads are converging as we're getting towards the very final confrontation, the final battle between the Decepticons and the Autobots.
When you talked to the military about advising on this movie did they have any worries about the script or the story?
Murphy: I can't take credit for talking to the military. Michael has a relationship with the military. He and [Ian] Bryce, the line producer, has been talking to the military and from what I know they just had the usual military concerns which were not portraying the military in a negative light. It's really that simple and they've approved the script and have been excited about the project since we started shooting. The first week we shot on Airforce bases.
Have they provided equipment, planes and all of that stuff?
Murphy: Very much so, great access, but again, that's a better question for Michael or if you get a chance to meet the line producer. They have provided the F-22. They have been very helpful in providing us access to everything.
Can you talk about the genesis of this project and sort of finally getting it made?
Murphy: Project started almost haphazardly at the beginning. I had been in conversation with Hasbro to do 'GI Joe' actually, and Sony was interested in doing it. Then we invaded Iraq and it became kind of clear that doing a movie called 'GI Joe' was probably not the smartest idea at that point. The lady who is no longer there, a woman named Carol Monroe, who was in charge of Hasbro Films suggested 'Transformers.' Again, like this question here, I wasn't so sure what the technology would support for something like that. At that exact same time, to be honest I'm probably five years too old to have grown up with 'Transformers,' but I knew from previous conversations that Tom DeSanto who had been instrumental in 'The X-Men' movies had always wanted to do it. So Tom and I partnered up and we approached every single studio in town about doing a big epic large budget live action 'Transformers' movie. It's one of those things that's not even like a name dropping thing. It's actually like a bad thing, but what we did because we could was that we pitched the head of every studio. Therefore we garnered absolute passes across the board. We looked at each other going, 'Oh my God, we've been to ComiCon. We've seen that the '80's are back. We've seen that this is something that has such a built in fan base and yet every studio, even production companies and financial companies like Spy Glass, they've all passed on this. Did we do something wrong?' And about a week or two before we tried to figure out what we were going to do it started to trickle down to the younger executives in each of those companies and so you'd have like a studio boss come in and say as a part of his regular Tuesday morning meeting, 'By the way, I heard about "Transformers," but we're passing.' And the younger guys were like, 'Whoa, whoa, wait, wait! What are you doing? Huh?' So you ended up in a situation where after two weeks of nothing, but passes we ended up with DreamWorks, New Line, Paramount, New Regency, and I'm skipping one there, but four or five companies all of whom wanted to try and get in on the idea, and thus this ended up being a sort of Paramount/DreamWorks co-venture. This was before Paramount even bought DreamWorks. It was always a co-venture.
Were there any worries that when the two companies came together that this might now be too expensive for one studio to do?
Murphy: I think that there was probably a moment there where they were both splitting a big cost, and now it's all one person's cost, but by that point you had Steven Spielberg executive producing and Michael Bay directing it and 'Transformers,' it was like, 'Is someone now going to say no?' It had come so far along in the two years of developing it that it was like, 'We need to make this now.'
And when you researched it were there any episodes in particular that stood out for the team that was doing the research?
Murphy: Specific episodes? No. And not to sound like a pure internet geek myself even though this is the whole internet geek press, but obviously it was G1. Everything. Like the original writer John Rogers had grown up on generation one. When Roberto [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] came on to do the subsequent drafts it was all the first season because that's what had been earmarked as like the traditional thing as far this being what kids grew up on and everything like that. But I would say that it wasn't one individual episode. No.
Did this prove more challenging to adapt than general comic book fare?
Murphy: Well, there are so many different things that make it 'Transformers,' but there is no one classic story like 'The Death of Gwen Stacy' or something like that. I think that it proved a little bit tricky. What the real balance was, and again, it's one of those things that we've been trying to get through on the fan sites to the fans, was that if you just wanted robots smashing robots then that's CG or that's two-d and we were always trying to do it as a live action movie. So ultimately it was kind of like, 'Yeah, so how many robots can we get in there before it becomes $500 million and you can't do the movie?' So you kind of have a nice balance now between the robots and the human interaction. And the first movie I'm sure you already know is about the arrival of the Autobots and the Decepticons.
So speaking of the first movie you're thinking about the obvious. So what direction could this go in the future?
Murphy: I think that everyone is hoping, everyone hopes for a sequel. But there is a definite ending to this movie. There is an ending that like traditionally our characters are established. Some of our alive. Some our dead. Some our wounded. Some have fled. And the battle rages on in the second one, but I don't know that anyone – everyone is hoping that there is a 'Transformers' in '09, but I don't think that anyone is there yet.
Are there any female Transformers?
Murphy: In the movie or in the Transformer's universe?
In the movie.
Murphy: In the movie no. In one of the drafts actually Roberto and Alex put in RC who is a later, like generation two or three scooter that transforms who was a female and it was interesting. That was one of the most interesting things to watch on the web because the people who hated RC being in there went nuts. Yet there were also a lot of people who loved RC and who thought it was alright and wanted to see what was going to happen with her. Ultimately she got written out of the first movie because of the way the writer's processes went. She didn't really make any sense in the first movie. It doesn't mean that she wouldn't be back later or something like that.
How did the writers then end up with the robots that they have in here?
Murphy: Well, there were several, and again I don't want to speak to the writer's process, but there were several that had to be in there. You know Optimus and you know Megatron – these guys were going to be in there no matter what. Then it became a question of who were the fan favorites coupled with who were the ones that were the most utilitarian for the story that Michael and Roberto and Alex were trying to tell. So for example, there is a lot of fan dissention that Soundwave did not ultimately end up in the movie. Lets just say that as Soundwave was initially in the movie and the fact that Soundwave is now being saved for a major role in the sequel is actually a very good thing because Soundwave wouldn't have been able to flourish in the current version of the movie. So it was kind of asking whether a character worked for the story or not. It's the same thing that happens with any development process.
Is it frustrating to have all your decisions poked and prodded at online?
Murphy: Well, as I posted last week which I think that maybe you're referring to a lot of people are getting – **** is leaking and **** is leaking from the production. **** is leaking from Hasbro, but it's all – a script has been online, but that was a script that's four drafts ago. It is designs that are two-d and it's designs that are not final. So it's a little bit frustrating and I think that what I posted on the board said it all which was if by the time we have a trailer because Michael likes to call what we played on July 4th an announcement, but by the time that we have a trailer out there where you see Bumblebee transform from the Camero to Bumblebee and walk and do something, if then people don't like it then I think they should ***** away and go crazy. But it is a little frustrating, to be honest, that people haven't actually even seen anything except preliminary stuff that has been leaked out from various sources and people are totally willing to hate and are totally welcome to hate what hate, but I think that they're hating before there is anything really concrete to hate, some people anyway.
What other things will we see in the trailer, and will we hear Optimus Prime's voice for the first time?
Murphy: What do you think?
I'm hoping.
Murphy: I'm hoping too, but I think that would be crazy not to have that. I think that it would be crazy not to have the transforming sound back. I think that it would be crazy not to have some good robot on robot carnage.
What about the song?
Murphy: You know, again, a lot of people ask me things without understanding the filmmaking process. It's like, 'Why isn't [Frank] Welker not in their yet?' I mean, we've been pushing for [Peter] Cullen and Welker from day one. We're not at the point in the movie where the Welker decision actually needs to be made. So Michael is now just reserving his right to make that decision. Let me assure you that the musical decisions, which again I think that you have to have at least in the credits somewhere a nod to 'More than meets the eye.' But again, there is no need to make that decision yet and so those decisions haven't been made.
What is Megatron in the film because wasn't he just a gun as a toy?
Murphy: He's not a gun and that's not something that I'm going to give away at the moment, but he's definitely not a gun. He hasn't been a gun since G1. Then he became a tank and then he became some sort of combat boat or a jet. Megatron was the one from the beginning because he became a gun, and then they were like, 'Wait, we're selling guns to kids.' He's always been a different thing and he is a different thing in our movie too.
So you mentioned the Transformer sound. So the sound we heard in the announcement isn't the sound we're going to hear when the film is released?
Murphy: Again, the movie is not done, but I would like to see the traditional noise come back. We will see. I think that the noise in the trailer is more of a musical cue, and not even actually a noise. Again, that was the studios, DreamWorks and Paramount, wanted to have an announcement out to go out on July 4th so that one year ahead we were announcing the movie. Look at 'Snakes on a Plane,' and so despite the fact that the internet is a very powerful thing the average person did not know that we were doing a 'Transformers' movie and so now millions of people watched 'Pirates' and watched all these other movies and saw the announcement, but there was actually no footage from the movie in the announcement.
How much does Hasbro have to say in how the Transformers look like in the film?
Murphy: Hasbro has absolute approval over every design of every character in the movie.
No matter how much fans on the internet ***** about what you're doing to the film they're going to be there opening day. So how much of your marketing goes to fans of the original show versus everyone else in the world that wasn't a fan of show?
Murphy: I'm only speaking for my producing partner Tom who I think that you're going to talk to next, but from the beginning we've tried to, through the message boards and through the fact that you guys are here and everything else, we've tried to be very, very attuned to the fans because at the end of the day if you make a good movie and you can appeal to the fans then you've got everything. There are going to be a lot of people who are going to see the movie because it's cool cars turning into robots smashing each other, but the people who are going to go again and again and bring their friends are the fan base. So we've been trying to appeal to the fan base. The obstacle has been that A, like I said initially there is no one Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy. 'So now you've included Scorponok Well, that's not G1.' But then there are five hundred other people who are like, 'But that's cool because he looks bad ass.' There is no one through line which has been difficult to be honest. I'll tell you, a perfect example is that it was one for one the people who were vehemently angry that RC was in the movie and one for one with the people who were fine that RC was in the movie. I think that the only thing that Tom and I were able to glean from the fan base really was that if we don't have Cullen and Welker in there we're morons. So from day one we were pushing that, and so Cullen is in and hopefully Frank ends up in it as well.
What about the rumor that Tom Hanks and Robert Zememckis were involved in the project?
Murphy: No, no, no. It was different. Tom and I pitched it to [Robert] Zemeckis company at one point, but his company didn't want to do it. That was never – well, I put it this way; as far as Tom and I were concerned that was never a serious consideration.
Can you select actors like Tom Hanks to do the voices?
Murphy: Anything can happen, but that was never our consideration. There might have been someone else involved who went on the record saying that he wanted new voices, but that wouldn't have been us.
Did you have any consultants from the original series?
Murphy: Tom and I had several meetings with Simon Furman who as you know was like the guru of the comic books and everything, and he was certainly a consultant as was this big – I forget the name of it. Tom could tell you though – definitive book on the 'Transformers.' It was this big $25 beautiful big guide book. Again though it wasn't like Simon was able to point to like 'This is the story you should tell.' Or like 'These are the characters that have to be in that.' Again, there has never been anything where the 'Transformers' have been interacting with human beings. This is really the first time that you've seen anything that has been live action and that's been a learning process for everyone both creatively and in the filmmaking.
Is this film going to have the origin of the Transformers, are we going to see Cybertron, and are we going to find out why there is a planet of robots?
Murphy: There are forty questions in that one sentence [Laughs]. Are we going to see Cybertron? Still uncertain. Are we going to find out why there's a planet of robots? Yes. Everything else yes. Cybertron uncertain. Everything else yes. There is at one point Shia does hear from Optimus what the hell is going on.
Out of the secondary characters in this film, who do you think is going to be like Boba-Fet, the breakout character?
Murphy: I mean, character wise I think that StarScream is probably the most bad ass villain next to Megatron. There've been a lot of people complaining on the web about the design, but again it was like they're complaining about a toy mold that's not finished yet. So that was weird. And I'm hoping, again because it's everyone's favorite Autobot after Optimus I'm hoping that Bumblebee ends up with that because Bumblebee has the most screen time of any of the characters because he ends up being the one who that communicates directly with a human first.
It sounds he's like he's the most sympathetic.
Murphy: Yeah. I think that out of the Autobots it's probably Bumblebee and on the Decepticons side I would StarScream.
Is that StarScream is so bad ass that people will want to buy t-shirts with him on it?
Murphy: That'd be giving away a couple of things that I'd rather not, but he's, character wise he is the one leading the Decepticons trying to free Megatron if you've seen **** online. So character wise he's just the most ruthless, humans are in the way, humans must be destroyed character.
Has Bumblebee's character changed a lot since he's now a bad ass car and not a Volkswagon?
Murphy: Changed a lot? No. He's still very much the Bumblbee that we all know, but he's no longer, as you know, a Bug because, again, when we started this two and a half years ago it was the year before 'Herby' came out and it was like, 'There's going to be another one.' And we don't want to do that again.
Are there any Dinobots or Incepticons in the film?
Murphy: [Laughs] Well, as you know Scorponok is in it, but I don't believe that he's an Incepticon. Tom will know. When the writers and the director put this together they tried to put together a team that works for the movie, but again had characters that everyone was familiar with from the show and the comic.

 

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Producer Ian Bryce:

On Set Interview: Producer Ian Bryce On Transformers
Date: February 21, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Latino Review

I know you're consulting on the Sector 7 and the other military stuff, but does Michael Bay have you consulting on how giant robots would fight a war?
Bryce: I'm pretty much involved in everything. I've been with Mike (Bay) for two years, and so I produced 'The Island' with him. So my responsibility for him is to help him setup a whole entire movie. Once the script and the story and everything is figured out my responsibility is to help him figure out how to mount the picture which includes the military, all the locations, the budget, the schedule, the crew, the casting, all of that stuff. So all of the day to day operations of the film are sort of in my purview.
You're the Line Producer?
Bryce: Yeah. My title is producer, but yeah I sort of function as that.
How much of the huge battles are going to be done for real? It seems that Michael Bay likes to really do a lot of that stuff.
Bryce: Yeah. He does. I support that too. I think that as much practical photography as you can get is probably the best. I think that the audience is so sophisticated these days that they can tell what is CG and what is animatronic and what's not real. So we certainly like to capture as much original photography as we can and then enhance it with the CG shots and we've got a few, a couple of robots that we built in full scale that are used very specifically for some shots, but we like to get as much live action as we can in there.
What kind of shots can you do with these forty foot robots?
Bryce: Well, I didn't say that they were all forty foot. We've got a little one too that's fantastic that's actually very, very articulate if you will in terms of his range of motions and so he's great. I love that robot. I think that he's awesome.
I know that the military have specific rules for when they support a film. So what exactly can they say about this, like, I mean, 'We wouldn't handle giant robots in this way?'
Bryce: [Laughs] Well, yeah. I think that – well, look, Michael and I both have relationships with the military from previous films and the first step is to go to them and just alert them that there is a project that really requires military cooperation and assistance and so we made some phone calls a year or so ago and just let them know that we were out here and there was a script. As soon as we got the script to where we wanted it we would start to share it with them. So we went to the department of defense, to our folks there and let them start to look at it. They were excited about it. They had a few comments to make on the script just about this and that, but generally they were extremely enthusiastic and supportive to the project and for them it's all about showcasing the military in an appropriate and positive light and if it's going to have a positive impact on recruitment which they feel that this one does. So once they got behind the script and they liked the idea of the movie then it was really about the coordination of all their military elements which are significant.
I know Michael is adamant about shooting things stateside. Considering how much you could save going out of the country, why was it important to shoot it in the states?
Bryce: Well, for several reasons. Yes, you could make this movie or any movie in any country that you chose to. It becomes logistically harder to find military hardware in foreign countries. So you have the studios who were inquisitive, if you will, about what it would take to shoot the movie in Canada particularly, but our position, Mike's and my position was that it would be counterproductive at the proceedings, at the point that we were at in that discussion to try to gear the movie up and to shut down the production in this country, move it to Canada. That was a big, big deal and Michael is used to a certain crew. A lot of his crew are repeat crew members and they've got a shorthand with him. Stunts and FX and construction particularly, he's very intensive in those areas. So my worry that I went to the studio with is that if you shut down the movie and move it to Canada even though you might save some money you'd also encounter a lot of obstacles along the way. So Mike and I committed to the studio that we knew what the amount was that we would save by going to Canada, and we said, 'Lets us stay in California and the movie will stay on track and it won't affect the release date. We'll get it ready in time. We'll have a better shot at being on schedule. Mike will have his proper crew and cast everything. And will figure it out and show you how to save the same amount of money that you'd save by going to Canada.' So we did all of that and they accepted that and we stayed here.
Why is it so important to keep things stateside?
Bryce: It's important to both of us, but Mike has been quite vocal about that over the years, and I certainly support that position although I have shot overseas as Mike has as well. I think that if you can keep movies in this country especially if they have an American theme and story and background then I think it behooves all of us to try and keep movies shooting in this country. It's not that there isn't any reason to go to Canada to shoot a film. There are movies that fit perfectly in any other countries. This one was technically and logistically complex enough that we felt it would be better served to keep it here.
What's this Sector 7?
Bryce: Sector 7.
And what is Sector 7?
Bryce: Sector 7 is an agency within the government that is involved in the whole 'Transformers' story. So it's a sub-theme if you will of the story.
Do you feel that you got a fairly accurate idea of how the military would react if robots appeared on the earth? I guess that's a kind of hard question to answer.
Bryce: It's a little bit of a hard question. I'm not a military person or strategist. I don't know if they are fearful of robots. They go into attack mode and so in our story there is a lot of brain power and questioning and strategy being employed.
When you have a film like this and of this size and scale with a very hard and firm release date, does that make your job more difficult?
Bryce: It's always tough to back the whole entire movie into a schedule, but I think that we had enough time because I first read this in February or March of last year, and so by the time that I came onto the project on June we were still two years away from the release date. So for movies of this size that's actually a reasonable timeframe I think. If it would've been much less than that it would've been difficult.
In 'The Island' there was a long action sequence. Has there been a particular sequence in this that you can talk about that has presented a real challenge to do?
Bryce: Not really. That one was difficult just because it was an airborne, futuristic vehicle. We have a lot more typical and traditional ground based vehicles in this with cars and trucks and stuff like that. Since it's not so futuristic it's a lot more manageable and so in our case it was more about figuring out what the vehicles were and just getting them prepared. They've all been ready for a long time and then we had several airborne vehicles that will only exist in CG.
Now you mentioned 'The Island,' considering that that was internationally successful, but domestically it took a hit, is there anything that you're trying to avoid in marketing or publicity that didn't work on 'The Island?'
Bryce: Well, I certainly wouldn't want to attribute any blame anywhere. I would say that the 'Transformers' franchise is so well known and so accepted and revered by such a large fan base that I would certainly hope and anticipate that provided we do our job properly and make a fulfilling film that the audience will come and see it. So I think that it's a little bit different. It's a different kind of movie. 'The Island' didn't have like a built in base and we were sort of starting from scratch on a movie like that. Hopefully, there is a lot of excitement and buzz around the movie already even though some of the art work has generated a little bit kind of an odd response, but I think that overall the fans, I certainly hope, will be excited with the transformations and the way that the robots look.
What was your first experience with 'Transformers?'
Bryce: Mine? When I had children and they had the toys which I could never figure out by the way. When we were in our productions meetings by the way we always had to have this Hasbro guy who is the only guy still on the planet as far as I know who can actually sit there and go like this while he's having conversation and make them robots and the cars. I was never that dexterous.
Were your kids excited when they found out that you were working on this?
Bryce: Yeah. My son is ten and is a huge movie fan. He loves movies and just watches them all the time and gets it and knows the FX and all of that stuff. So I took him to the art department in the beginning to show him some of the stuff and he said, 'Daddy, this is the coolest movie you've ever worked on.' So he's a barometer for me of the cool factor certainly.
We know that Don [Murphy] and Tom DeSanto go on the web. Do you do the same thing?
Bryce: I do. Yeah. Having done 'Spider-Man' I certainly respect our fan base and their opinions and everything, and I believe that as a producer there is a way to hear the voice that is out there as much as you're able to without letting it sort of command you if you will. I think that provided there is a give and take, that there is some stuff that might not go over well, but hopefully the majority of stuff will go over and you have to try and appeal, if you can, to the audience that's set and the audience who is likely to show up even though they don’t know anything about 'Transformers,' but they see the trailers and they think that whatever robot images that they see are cool and that Michael's action is cool. So I think that you have to try to balance your response and approach to the movie to address all of those things.
It's interesting that Michael Bay is doing a 'Transformers' movie because you don't normally see such a big director take on a franchise like this. What are you guys doing to make this a Michael Bay movie?
Bryce: Well, first of all I think that Mike wanted to make a family movie. So for him it was a conscious decision to make a film that would have a different kind of appeal which he's not teenager anymore and I think that he was thinking about what his next movie should be. So there is signature action there. Mike is one of the greatest action directors ever so he's going to have some of that. You'll see in some of the ending sequences, once we get into the third act there is some great ground and air based action with both military and non-military, and we also have a big road sequence that we're going to do next week. So I think that he'll blend in some of his traditional and expected action into the story.
A lot of orange guys?
Bryce: A little bit of green today.
I know that you're going to be shooting Chicago, Boston, Washington and hopefully the Pentagon. Will that be second unit shooting?
Bryce: Yeah. When we finish principle photography towards the end of next month we have a road trip to either three or four cities. We're still figuring out where we're going to be. I think that for sure D.C., Chicago and Detroit are sort of contestants right now for a small amount, a days worth of photography. It's not a big deal. It's really second unit stuff. Then we have some air to air stuff at Edward's Air Force base that is second unit. We've got a scene out on the ocean that we have to do for a day, and again that's second unit. So six days or something.
And the Pentagon, since a lot of the guys who are now thirty or forty and know about the 'Transformers,' does that make it easier to get it through?
Bryce: No, I wouldn't say so. I think that the military approval process is fairly strict and they have a set of criteria that they follow to give approval to a movie. By the way, stuff that we're doing in D.C. is all exterior. So we have a little traffic jam to do and then a flight towards the Pentagon. All of our interior Pentagon sets we built on our stages and photographed those there.
In terms of ratings and family friendliness you have a lot more leeway in blowing up robots than humans. So with that in mind how violent of a film is this going to be?
Bryce: Yeah. I think that it'll be keeping with a PG-13 rating. Mike is very sensitive, as am I, to what you can and can't do, what's pushing it a little bit too far because you have to bear in mind that your audience is going to involve younger kids and you want to be careful not to push it too hard. So we're very careful about making sure that we don't cross over a line there. In terms of our human action, again, we're very careful that there is no blood. If there are car things you want to see someone get out and survive at the end. So, yes, there is mayhem, but you want to be careful about the portrayal of it.
You said that there were scenes portraying flight towards the Pentagon. Does that mean that there is an attack on the Pentagon?
Bryce: No, that would be not be safe to say. Absolutely not. We're just flying a helicopter towards there to take some people in there. So it's very innocuous actually. They would have nothing to do with that kind of portrayal at this point. In fact, I don't believe that they have allowed a movie since 9/11 to film exteriors at the Pentagon. So we're the first and it's because we have a very strong relationship with them and we've worked very hard to make sure that relationship is solid and that they trust us and that they believe we're portraying the military in a very appropriate way. Otherwise they wouldn't let us near the place.
What sort of things will they do to get the girls to come and see this film? We know guys will like it.
Bryce: Love. Love story.
Robot love story?
Bryce: [Laughs] Human love. There has to be a girl. I mean, love in the stories, they revolve around a boy and a girl and a boy and a car and a boy in the action. So there are several themes going on there.

 

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Lorenzo DiBonaventura:

On Set Interview: Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura On Transformers
Date: February 21, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Latino Review

Do you have a connection to 'Transformers' on a fan level?
Di Bonaventura: I do. I was a little bit older, but I understand it. I have that connection to 'Scooby-Doo.' So when I made that film at Warner Brothers it was crazy. I was a little bit older when 'Transformers' came out, and so I was on the tail end of that. I appreciate it, but it wasn't what I grew up on. I did always imagine that any time you have a world this large it's a fun thing to play on with a movie.
How much of the mythology is in the film and how much of that is made up and how many touchstones are there in it for the people who are familiar with it?
Di Bonaventura: We like to think that there is quite a bit of it. I think that what's apparent about it is that when you go into something this closely that had so many different iterations which is what is the complicated thing about it – I mean, it's which iteration that you think is the mythology and which one did you grow up with. That's the really hard part. We had several people who are hardcore 'Transformer' fans who we would go to and say, 'Are we on the right track? Are we on the wrong track? Are we interpreting this incorrectly? Is it a fair assumption to make a leap from here to there?' So we did our best to stay with it.
Is there a particular generation that this film relies on, generation one?
Di Bonaventura: Yeah, I would say that generation one is the most dominant mythology. There are little bits and pieces from other ones that could link into it, but it's mostly generation one.

As far as the technology were there any big hurdles to get over?
Di Bonaventura: Yes. Cost. With the technology comes a fair amount of cost, but I would say that the biggest hurdle was creative which was because these things are amazing, and you've seen pictures of them – the scale of them is so big, and so it's hard to figure out how the humans play in there with them. It's that kind of 'Jurassic Park' relationship. You star falling in love with the dinosaurs, and it's like, 'Well, what about the people?' So from a creative point of view, the producers – Tom DeSanto, myself, Don Muphy – everyone involved, all of us had those kinds of conversations of like, 'How do we do that?' In a way the Transformers work themselves out because of their size, but it's like, 'How do you make sure that the people have an equal role?'
Did there have to be humans?
Di Bonaventura: You couldn't afford to make this with non-humans, to tell you the truth. Yeah, there had to be or you would've had to make it animated.
Somewhere down the line maybe could there be a live action film without humans?
Di Bonaventura: Maybe, but the technology doesn't exist to make it in a way that anyone could afford. That's the problem. With animation you could do that though.
Can you walk us through the story on this because there is a lot of information out there?
Di Bonaventura: I know. We really don't want to spoil the story by sharing with everyone. I know that people are mad at us and we don't want people to be mad, but I think that one of the issues that I'm having as a filmmaker with the internet is that there is so much information that it's like, what's the mystery of it all by the time you get there. So we're desperately trying to hold onto some elements of it, but it is fair to say that in broad stroke terms that we've got the Auto-bots and the Decepticons and the war between them is going to come to earth, and the job of the humans and the Auto-bots is to figure out, while slightly outnumbered, what they can do to stop the Decepticons from destroying earth and destroying our future.
What's the relationship between filmmaking and internet because everyone is talking about it and things are constantly getting leaked? In the future how can you deal with something like that?
Di Bonaventura: You know what, we're really spending a lot of time asking ourselves that question and I don't think that anyone really has the answer to it. It's a two pronged thing. On the one hand it's fantastic that people have this kind of avid interest, and so in a weird way it's gratifying that people are hacking into our department. It's like, 'Okay, we cannot keep the cameras off of us.' And particularly when you're shooting something like this. So on the one hand that makes you go, 'Oh, this is great. People are excited.' On the other hand I do believe that entertainment depends to a certain degree on surprise. So if you're going to give away the surprise then what's left. It's a nice experience what's left, but I like to be surprised personally. I know that's what I like when I go into a movie. I mean, forget spoilers. I don't want to know everything about it. I want to go in there and be excited. One thing that is completely incorrect about what's been going on over the internet is that the real insane actual representation of these Transformers is happening in the computer. No one has seen those. So that's where we sort of say, 'You know what, we do have a lot of surprise left.' And we're desperately trying to make sure that that's not going to get out there too.
How much will you give away in the trailers?
Di Bonaventura: Well, like in this first teaser that we put out we tried to give away as little possible and we tried to have a little fun with the audience and let them know – one of the tricks is that the non-believers think of the Transformers as a purely animated experience. I think that it's fair to say that this is something we're going to do on a very adult scale and very live action and not animated. So that was the signal that we wanted to give people.
Is the film based on any particular episode from the cartoon?
Di Bonaventura: I've seen a few of the episodes of that, but I'm not really familiar with that aspect of it particularly. I mean, it's fairly simple to say that from our point of view that Auto-bots like humans and the Decepticons don't.
How involved is the production in making the toys?
Di Bonaventura: You have to be to a certain extent because you want it – you hate when the toy looks like…I mean, like 'The Matrix,' we were so careful about any of our catch that went out etc, etc and this is on a larger scale obviously. What is so important is that the best way to give the fans what their expectations are on the toy line and for the kids that are now going to experience it for the first time or the second or third time is that we coordinate that as much as possible. I mean, one of the things that I find really fascinating is that if you look at the animated series, and I'm going to say something that could be taken controversial so let go for it, but if you look at the animated series, okay, and you take those guys the way that they're built, the square box like aspect of it and you put it into a live action world it would look silly. It looks great in the animation, but in the live action world it suddenly doesn't conform. Your mind's eye goes, 'Wait a second, there is something wrong here.' So one of the serious efforts was how you made a Transformer for live action, how do you evolve it forward without pissing off the people who love it and recognize it for what it was, but also saying at the same time that there are a lot of people who love it who are saying, 'Come on, go for it. Make it cool. Make it for the year 2007, not for the year 1980.' So that has been one of the hardest things of all and that's taken a lot of coordination with toys because we want them to represent that and they want to represent what we're doing in the movie.
How do you do that?
Di Bonaventura: Everyone has their own definition of what's cool and you do the best that you can. And you try it out on a lot of people. Again, we had a sort of core skeptic group that we would bring things in front of and they will go, 'Well, it's not right. Why not like this?' There were certain things that we did that were mechanically impossible for a film and so we had no choice. Michael [Bay] has spoken about Optimus and how that's going to be done. So there are actually practical things that are involved in it. Technology and animation, CGI technology has really evolved since the animation and so I think personally that I want to see the Transformers evolve.
This is basically a franchise aimed at ten year old boys. How do you turn it into a film that's going to appeal to actual adults? How and why?
Di Bonaventura: Wow. So, how – well, there are a lot of ten year old boys who are now thirty five year old boys.
Right, but thirty five year old girlfriends never played with these things.
Di Bonaventura: Never played with them, but there is no real simple answer to that question. I think that the reality is and what you're trying to do is that you're trying to evolve the experience so that if you're a ten year old now you see this through the same eyes that you saw it as a ten year old then, but if you're an adult you see it through more of an adult eye. You understand some of the adult interactions that are occurring that a kid is not going to process. Also, just doing it on this kind of scale that we're doing it on immediately allows an adult to have some affinity for it I think. You try not to talk down to the kids. You try not to lose what is sort of magical about it as a kid. I think, for me anyhow, what I find so magical is that in some ways seeing this giant thing be really sensitive. It's just like a moment, right, but I think that's why people are so touched by that. People actually listen to the philosophy of it and are connected to it. So we've kept the philosophy and we've kept those things hopefully that the – how old are you?
Old enough not to have played with these toys.
Di Bonaventura: [Laughs] Okay, fine. The problem that everyone is having with us is that we had no intention of really casting voices until we got into post because we have our hands full already. So we've met a lot of actors and Frank [Welker] is one of them and we haven't been talking – to be honest with you, we haven't been talking about it. Other than when we announced Optimus that's the only thing we spent time on in pre-production. Our intention was really to focus on that once we finished shooting.
So, why did you do Optimus and not Megatron?
Di Bonaventura: Because we had enough time to deal with one voice and we wanted to do some of the CGI to a voice right now so that we could test it. So it was important to cast one character, and it seemed like we could either cast Megatron or Optimus and so we chose the big guy.
So Peter Cullen is already the voice?
Di Bonaventura: Not yet, but he's in the process. We're taking his voice and putting it against the other animation and seeing that sort of thing.
What do you forecast on the final product of this, what the budget is going to be?
Di Bonaventura: You should talk to Paramount and DreamWorks about that.
As a former studio head are you sympathetic to that?
Di Bonaventura: Sympathetic to what?
The budget.
Di Bonaventura: Sure. Absolutely. It's really agony when you're an executive and you have a project that's causing you to think that you might lose your job.
What about product placement in this in terms of like I just saw a Chevy out there?
Di Bonaventura: Well, I mean, we have cars.
Have a lot of companies come to you?
Di Bonaventura: You know what, we've had some conversations with multiple things. GM was the one who said, 'Hey, we really love this property and we really want to be a part of it.' We had to pick some cars too and so it seemed like, 'Alright. Great.' I dig the Camero out there. I want one of those. They're like, 'Well, we haven't made them yet.'
It's not a Volkswagon though.
Di Bonaventura: No, it's not. I know. Sorry. I don't want to drive a Volkswagon [Laughs]. No, I'm just kidding.
Did the luke warm reception to 'Snakes on a Plane' take some pressure off of you in terms of listening to the fan community online?
Di Bonaventura: I was involved in 'Doom' which had some of the similar experiences that 'Snakes on a Plane' had and I think that Hollywood has to both listen to the voice and not overvalue it. I think that's the lesson of it. But again, it's a little bit of what we were talking about with surprise. It's like, they sort of sucked the surprise out of that movie by the sheer quantity that was out there. So that particular part of the fan based had been oversaturated.
Do you feel like the fan based did it to themselves?
Di Bonaventura: How do you mean that?
In that they consumed it too much and ruined it for themselves.
Di Bonaventura: Yeah. I did. I think that they needed to go to the theater.
And do you worry about that with 'Transformers?'
Di Bonaventura: Yes. I do worry about that with 'Transformers' and it's one of the reasons why we're trying not to share all of the storyline and all of those things because we don't want everyone to know everything. None of us like it when people get angry at us. It's not fun to read about certain things that have been written about some of us. It really isn't. It sucks. What can I tell you? But the truth is that you have to make a decision about what's right for the movie and what you think is right for the movie. I could be wrong, but I think what's right for the movie is not letting everyone know everything.
Is there a limit that you think budgets can go to, a critical mass where no matter how good a project is it's not going to make back the budget?
Di Bonaventura: Is there a limit? Well, sure there's a limit. In terms of this movie, Steven Spielberg – I've been involved in movies with Warner and Amblin and Steven – and he has always taken the position of being able to do big movies of scale, but with responsible numbers and he felt very strongly and spoke to all of us involved about how that would be his philosophy. So the negative on this movie which I'm sure has had a lot of different things said about it is so substantially less than what these other movies have been spending. It's forced us – in this case it's really been hard because we're dealing with thirty foot high guys, and so it's really hard to do, but it has forced us to be very specific about every choice that we're making. It's not like, 'Lets throw out a whole bunch of big shots right now.'
Do know what rating you're shooting for on this?
Di Bonaventura: I don't like going for ratings, but it will be a PG or a PG-13 movie. It's whatever the ratings board tells us what it is.
When can we see a trailer?
Di Bonaventura: I suspect that you'll see a trailer in the holiday season some time.

 

[nosebleed.]

Tom DeSanto:

On Set Interview: Producer Tom De Santo On Transformers
Date: February 21, 2007

By: Kellvin Chavez
Source: Latino Review

Tom DeSanto has had his fair share of internet backlash and vindication. He helped revive the comic to film business by producing the highly successful Bryan Singer directed "X-Men" movies.

So you can thank him for just about every good comic book movie since then and throw crap at him for having a hand in the crap fest that is "Ghost Rider."

Now he's back with another holy fan boy project, "Transformers."

I caught up with him on the downtown Los Angeles set during filming of the movies climax.
So you're a fellow geek?
DeSanto: I am a geek. I was the kid rushing home from football practice to play Dungeons & Dragons. So I've had that sort of existence.
I don't think that most geeks had football practice.
DeSanto: Well, I was an in the closet geek. I mean, between this and 'X-Men' and 'Galactica' all of my action figures have become real. So that's a good thing.
What clicked in your head that made you think that 'Transformers' could be a live action movie because it seems so complicated?
DeSanto: You know what, it does, but the thing that attracted me to 'Transformers' at first was the great characters. Like 'X-Men,' I would wait for Thursday because Thursday was comic book day and then there was this cartoon that came on when I was in high school. So I was a little old for 'Transformers,' but I was still checking it out and then I read the mini-series and then I just got pulled into the mythology. I mean, Optimus Prime and Megatron weren't robots. These were almost Shakespearean type characters that had all this drama and all this background and that is the great thing about this world, that it's not just about robots and robots are great. When you see this stuff you're going to go, 'I have never seen that before ever in my life.' And you're going to believe it. You're going to believe that that truck or that car is actually standing there, but you're going to care too and that is the key. It's like with Wolverine we had to do changes. We couldn't put him in the yellow and blue spandex and the mask – I fought for that mask tooth and nail, but it looked like Wolverine was ready for Mardi Gras. So in order to adapt properties like this you do need to make changes, but you need to stay true to the soul of what it is and the spirit of what it is.
And how would you describe the soldiers aside from being Shakespearean?
DeSanto: I think that it's really all about – one, I think that there is a huge environmental allegory in the 'Transformers' because it's the Decepticons abuse of what was the key in the cartoon. Energon. It was just needing to survive and sort of draining the planet, but Optimus Prime was selfless. If it was a choice between him taking the bullet or some stranger that he's never met before taking that bullet he'll jump in front of that person. And that's the great thing about the Auto-bots and the Decepticons because it really gets down to the classic good versus evil.
Will the film address Optimus Prime's Jewish heritage?
DeSanto: Yes it does. We are at Optimus' briss. [Laughs] It's in a flashback sequence and there is a special appearance by Stewie who is actually the Moyle. I'm kidding. No. That's the great thing though, all of the people who love pop culture are putting all of these 'Transformer' references in their work. I'm buddies with Seth Green who does 'Robot Chicken' and they get more mail about the 'Transformer' stuff than anything else that they do which is great. There is a reason that twenty something years later we're talking about these characters. There is a lot of pop culture stuff from that time that we're not talking about, but these characters are special and this movie is going to be special too. It's one of those things where catching lightening in a bottle is pretty good.
We know that Optimus Prime of old had that sort of John Wayne spirit. How will the new Optimus Prime reflect that sort of spirit?
DeSanto: See, it's interesting to me. I think that John Wayne is more Ironhide. Not to fanboy geek out on anyone here, but Ironhide is sort of this old crusty, old school shoot first ask questions later type character. I've always seen Optimus as more of an almost Xavier type figure and I think that there is something about that odd selflessness. There is a lot of swagger and a big gun and he knows how to use it and it's also the rivalry. You have this sort of thing that like Xavier and Magneto you have the classic Optimus versus Megatron. It's one person who doesn't see biological – I called him a person, but he doesn't see biological life as significant. If it means wiping out this whole planet then so be it. It doesn't matter to him. But Optimus sees anything that has sentience and free will, anything that has a soul as being worthy of fighting for.
Are there going to be some real emotional scenes that look back to some of the stuff like when Optimus died in this mythology?
DeSanto: I get misty thinking about it. I think that's the key to any good film, you have to care. You're going to care at the end of this movie. You're going to care about the robots whether it's Optimus Prime or Megatron who maybe you can't stand. Any great movie franchise, when they accomplish that they've done their job. So hopefully we've done our job.
Are the cars going to talk while they are in car form?
DeSanto: We're not going to have the little light on the front [Laughs]. Scatman Crothers as the voice. No. Scatman Crothers is great. You go from 'Hong Kong Fooey' to 'Sandford and Son' to 'The Shinning.' I mean, who has that range. It's shocking. What was the question again?
The cars talking?
DeSanto: They will talk in their vehicle form, but it's like Superman – you will believe that a man can fly. You will believe that a car can talk. What's even more special is when they're in the robot form. I know when the guys from ILM get impressed and they're a jaded bunch, but they're like, 'Whoa, this is going to be one movie where you're going to be seeing some stuff for the first time onscreen.' There's stuff that's never been done before.
In terms of changing Optimus Prime's look, how important is it to something realistic when you have forty foot tall robots rampaging the city? When do you need to be realistic and when can you just go with the fantasy?
DeSanto: I think that you need to be able to believe that it's there. The job of the filmmaker is to hypnotize the audience. If for one second you think that it's an effect then we have failed. So if something is maybe too flat and it can't catch all of that three-d texture that you want to make it look like it's really there you need to modify it and change it and say, 'Look, why isn't this working? Lets try this. Okay, now I believe that it's there.' So there are compromises that are made. Look, there is always going to be the cartoon and there is always going to be the comic. It's the same thing that's similar to 'X-Men.' The continuity in the comic is different than the continuity in the cartoon which is different than the continuity in the movie. It's the same thing here, but we're going to stay true to the heart and soul.
One of the risks with a movie like this getting too campy. There's no way to get around the fact it's a forty foot robot turning into a Camero. How do you not make that campy?
DeSanto: ILM. That's part of the hypnotism. It's like you - there was 'Jurassic Park.' Were you going to really believe that? Up to that point dinosaur movies were like 'Land of the Lost' which I loved and grew up on and there was a certain campiness to that, but when you see that T-Rex you were like, 'Oh my God.' It's the same thing here.
Now there's not a hundred percent CGI in this. What all was done with CGI?
DeSanto: Right. We did a real full size Bumblebee which looks amazing and the thing that I love about Bumblebee is when you stand next to it, it makes you feel like you're ten years old. There is something that's magical about having that thing right there. I love models. When we were trying to get 'Galactica' started up I tracked down the original Galactica and we would shoot with the models and do all of that. There is something magic about having it there and Bumblebee is pretty cool to stand next to.
Did you ever consider a story that was just the Transformers without the human element to it?
DeSanto: Well, there are two problems with that. The number one problem is that you need a human element in order to have the audience who isn't familiar with Transformers introduce them into the world. That's why Wolverine wasn't a part of the team in the first 'X-Men.' He was the eyes and ears of the audience. You needed to explain the school and all of that. It's the same things here with the humans. You have to explain what Auto-bots are, what Decepticons are and Spike or Sam is from the comic and he is the audience. So you definitely need to have him and you also need to take into account that there is a certain realism with budgets and you've got to figure out a story that is still going to get made. I mean, the writers could have written a big crazy 'Transformers Transformer' movie, but it would never get made. It would just be a four hundred and fifty million dollar movie, but with this the humans are the key because they're the audience. And for the uninitiated walking in you have to introduce them to all of these characters and the good versus evil of it all.
With 'X-Men' you experience the beauty of the internet fan backlash and so on. Are you bringing that experience here to everyone and saying, 'Look, I've been through this. Don't worry.'
DeSanto: Yeah. It's funny because at least for us on the first 'X-Men,' we felt that we were like the first movie ever really under a microscope. I remember the first image that we had that leaked out was a Polaroid of a stuntman in a stunt Wolverine costume, and it's hideous. It just looks awful and fans were upset and they were like, 'Why aren't they using the traditional costumes?' That's actually where Bryan came up with that line, 'What do you want? Yellow spandex?' He was saying, 'Look, we get it. We tried it. It's not working, but you need to trust us.' Some thing aren't going to work too. There are some things in 'The X-Men' that I would love to change, but then there are other things that we're like, 'Okay, we got that right.' There are so many variables when you're doing a movie like this, but everyone is giving a hundred and ten percent.
Getting back to the original film, there is that thing about Orson Wells and his last job being the 'Transformers.'
DeSanto: Yes, three weeks after he finished his voice work on 'Transformers' Orson Wells died.
Has it been easy to approach people in Hollywood about this idea and get them to take it seriously?
DeSanto: It was really difficult to setup. When I approached Don and said that I wanted to do 'Transformers,' and he wasn't of that generation, but he trusted me and sort of saw that this might be cool when I was pitching the storyline. We went in together to Hasbro and they said, 'Okay, here are the rights. Go and try and set it up.' But there were two other attempts to get this movie set up that producers previous to us couldn't get done. I think that our journey on that was really difficult because you're dealing with a lot of people who aren't of this generation. So you have to say, 'Look, don't gage this by whether or not you get it or not, but go asks your junior execs and your assistants and walk down the street and show your kids.' Fortunately we were able to get it restarted over at DreamWorks and Mike DeLuca had asked me to write up a treatment to send off to Steven [Spielberg]. I did that and the rest is history.
Are there other Transformers that you're hoping to see in the sequels to this?
DeSanto: That depends on how many 'Transformers' fans – here is a challenge that I'm going to give to the 'Transformers' fan. 'The X-Men' fans were few in number, but they brought five and ten people with them to the theater. I want the 'Transformers' fans to outdo the 'X-Men' fans. So if you have friends who aren't fans bring them out and your question I think will be determined by how well they get into that.
There's not one that you wished you could've gotten into this film?
DeSanto: Well, definitely because of the mythology there is an arch here, but I don't want to tip my hat. It was like setting up Phoenix in 'X-Men' one. You didn't want us to give that away.
Will there be a Voltron movie?
DeSanto: Yes, but I don't have the rights so I'm not going to talk about it.
What about Teen Titans Movie?
DeSanto: Yes. He just turned in a draft, a beat sheet, a treatment. I'm working with Mark Wolfman on that. So it's awesome.
Did you ever think about making Megatron a gun?
DeSanto: We'll talk about that later, but yes.

 

[nosebleed.]

DeSanto's is the best IMO. He is the closest to a fan we have on this production team and speaks intelligently about a lot of things fans are concerned about. He does not speak down to the fans and respects us so I respect his word.

 

[Golgo-13]

Wow, they mention Soundwave for the sequel.

 

[Golgo-13]

So, why did you do Optimus and not Megatron?

Di Bonaventura: Because we had enough time to deal with one voice and we wanted to do some of the CGI to a voice right now so that we could test it. So it was important to cast one character, and it seemed like we could either cast Megatron or Optimus and so we chose the big guy.

So Peter Cullen is already the voice?

Di Bonaventura: Not yet, but he's in the process. We're taking his voice and putting it against the other animation and seeing that sort of thing.

I'm a little confused by this.

 

[nosebleed.]

I'm a little confused by this.

Please note that while the interview articles are dated as February 21st 2007, that some of these interviews may be a little bit old, yet still can be an interesting read.

These are probably from last year and may be quite old...but I still like reading their perspectives.

 

[Golgo-13]

These are probably from last year and may be quite old...but I still like reading their perspectives.

 

[nosebleed.]

CFlash, you might like this blurb from DeSanto.

And how would you describe the soldiers aside from being Shakespearean?

DeSanto: I think that it's really all about – one, I think that there is a huge environmental allegory in the 'Transformers' because it's the Decepticons abuse of what was the key in the cartoon. Energon. It was just needing to survive and sort of draining the planet, but Optimus Prime was selfless. If it was a choice between him taking the bullet or some stranger that he's never met before taking that bullet he'll jump in front of that person. And that's the great thing about the Auto-bots and the Decepticons because it really gets down to the classic good versus evil.

Maybe they kept some environmental awareness aspect in the movie.

 

[echostation]

god that picture of Don Murphy is classic... he just looks like such a stupid dumbass it's so funny that Transformers is partially in this man's hands....

 

[Golgo-13]

god that picture of Don Murphy is classic... he just looks like such a stupid dumbass it's so funny that Transformers is partially in this man's hands....

I was thinking the same thing. LOL! It's scarey that this franchise partially rests in the hands of a man who looks like a drunken baffoon!t:

 

[bunk]

Murphy: Hasbro has absolute approval over every design of every character in the movie.


Well, that settles that.

 

[CFlash]

Murphy: Hasbro has absolute approval over every design of every character in the movie.


Well, that settles that.

Dean Devlin said the same thing about TOHO and Godzilla. And, on paper, it was true. We all know what happened there (and if you don't, then you should).

I'm sure Hasbro has absolute approval or veto over every design. Whether they can honestly use it and risk souring relations with the filmmakers is another matter.

 

[CFlash]

CFlash, you might like this blurb from DeSanto.



Maybe they kept some environmental awareness aspect in the movie.

An allegory (as Desanto calls it in that blurb) is not the same as a metaphor. "The Energon Cube" in this movie could represent any Holy Grail.

I'm pretty sure Michael Bay saw fit to remove any environmental awareness from this movie. In fact, the movie is ANTI everything TF (as a story) represented IMHO.

 

[Boiiinng]

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=124398
Did you have any consultants from the original series?
Murphy: Tom and I had several meetings with Simon Furman who as you know was like the guru of the comic books and everything, and he was certainly a consultant as was this big – I forget the name of it. Tom could tell you though – definitive book on the 'Transformers.' It was this big $25 beautiful big guide book. Again though it wasn't like Simon was able to point to like 'This is the story you should tell.' Or like 'These are the characters that have to be in that.' Again, there has never been anything where the 'Transformers' have been interacting with human beings. This is really the first time that you've seen anything that has been live action and that's been a learning process for everyone both creatively and in the filmmaking.

At Botcon 2006, Simon said no one ever contacted him to consult for the film.

 

[nosebleed.]

Hmm...who to believe. Furman or Murphy? I think I'll go with the non-crazy writer type guy.

 

[Overman27pj]

The leaked script is 4 drafts ago.

Sweet.

 

[Spark]

I'm sure Hasbro has absolute approval or veto over every design. Whether they can honestly use it and risk souring relations with the filmmakers is another matter.

Agreed.

At Botcon 2006, Simon said no one ever contacted him to consult for the film.

I don't think he was asked to consult either, but that doesn't mean he didn't have an informal chat with the producers.

 

[CFlash]

The leaked script is 4 drafts ago.

Sweet.

It was also 4 drafts after the original one John Rogers wrote. And not much had been changed then apparently.

I'm sure the basic outline is the same throughout (and thats a bad thing).

 

[Tad Fatherton]

It was also 4 drafts after the original one John Rogers wrote. And not much had been changed then apparently.

I'm sure the basic outline is the same throughout (and thats a bad thing).

you sure do like telling other people what their opinions are.

 

[Overman27pj]

It was also 4 drafts after the original one John Rogers wrote. And not much had been changed then apparently.

I'm sure the basic outline is the same throughout (and thats a bad thing).

Ah all knowing CFlash, would you please tell me other mysteries of the world that you are Sure of, even though they happen in the future?

Have you even read the script?

 

[CFlash]

Ah all knowing CFlash, would you please tell me other mysteries of the world that you are Sure of, even though they happen in the future?

Have you even read the script?

It was a comparison. The leaked script we all saw (yes, I read it) many months ago by Orci and Kurtzman was several drafts after the original John Rogers one. That's a fact (Murphy and Orci Kurtzman said so)... and it hadn't changed very much except for a lot of dialogue (About 50% John Rogers said). But, the plot and outline was the same.

Now, we hear the script used during the actual shoot is 4 drafts after the leak. That's great. But, everything we've seen and heard suggests that the movie- at its core- is basically UNCHANGED.

Did I elaborate well enough on my post for you to understand what I meant now?

 

[nosebleed.]

Stop arguing guys. You're making this guy scared:

 

[Avangarde]

I think the change in dialog would be a huge help considering character was one of the major downers of this movie. There may even be a chance of having more english speaking transformers ie Starscream. My worst fears of this movie was that some of the tf's with less screen time were going to be left without little to no dialog, therefore no character development. There is now a chance characters like Ironhide, Jazz, Starscream, even Barricade can give us some development.