Age of Extinction Transformers 2 Writers Confirmed

[Sam Fisher]

Transformers 2 Writers Confirmed

Source: The Hollywood Reporter
October 4, 2007



Screenwriter Ehren Kruger and the writing team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are in talks to team to write the screenplay for DreamWorks/Paramount's Transformers 2, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Director Michael Bay, star Shia LaBeouf and producers Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Don Murphy are back in their respective chairs, as is executive producer Steven Spielberg.

The trade adds that the teaming of A-listers to write such a huge project might be an industry first and could have been necessary because Kurtzman and Orci -- who wrote first movie -- also are busy writing J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie for Paramount and producing Eagle Eye for DreamWorks.

The three writers are also working together on Nightlife, a DreamWorks serial-killer project that sees Kruger adapting a Thomas Perry novel, with Kurtzman and Orci producing along with Neal Moritz. Kruger also adapted the Stephen King novel "The Talisman," which Spielberg is exec producing for TNT.

Kruger met with Bay and Hasbro president Brian Goldner and impressed the duo with his knowledge of the "Transformers" mythology.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6372

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Kinda glad they have returned, but i hope they lose some of the gaping plotholes their script had.

Saying that, they wrote frigging awesome lines for the Autobot's and Decepticons, especially Megatron and Prime.

 

[Golgo-13]

Well at least Kruger has knowledge of the TF mythos.

 

[OobeDoobBenubi]

I guess Megan is not expected to return if Shia already has been signed

 

[Golgo-13]

I guess Megan is not expected to return if Shia already has been signed

To early to draw that conclusion, although i personally wouldn't miss her.

 

[skorponok]

Maybe BAG is jealous and has ordered she not star in the film

 

[Figs]

If you guys look on the front page at news from a day or two ago, it was never posted on boards. The writers say how they definetly want to have more depth with the sequel, especially with Autobots and Decepticons. It was a small news bit.

 

[Retroman]

They hired not one, not two, but three writers??! Don't think i've ever seen a studio do this before. It shows how badly they want a sequel and how much they want to have it ready before the strike.

Ehren Kruger is a very interesting addition to the writing team since he's pretty much written only darker stuff.Arlington Road and The Ring are part of my dvd collection and i liked Skelington Key. Looks like there will be a little more depth.

I guess Megan is not expected to return if Shia already has been signed

Megan is signed for the sequel.
http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=5708

To early to draw that conclusion, although i personally wouldn't miss her.

Her acting chops may not be great but i'd say her rather sexy presence played a part in the first movie's box office success. IMO it would be a mistake to leave her out of the sequel.

 

[Julliant]

Her acting chops may not be great but i'd say her rather sexy presence played a part in the first movie's box office success. IMO it would be a mistake to leave her out of the sequel.

Especially since the first movie had at least an hour dedicated to showing how Sam/Shia was courting her.

 

[Chris B]

Nice to see that the writers are on board. Still, I hope they don't rush the script.

 

[Avangarde]

All positives

 

[Golgo-13]

Her acting chops may not be great but i'd say her rather sexy presence played a part in the first movie's box office success. IMO it would be a mistake to leave her out of the sequel.

You guys are dellusional if you think B.O this movie made was partly because Megan Fox was in it. Most had never even heard of her until they saw TF. The draw was the 'giant ****ing robots'..period.

 

[tzarinna]

I :heart: me some giant ****ing robots.

 

[StormSailor]

Pulled this off of Bay's website... It's from the LA Times:

Transformers II Update

10/10/2007 08:25 PM
By Jay A. Fernandez, Special to The Times
October 10, 2007

Well, DreamWorks and Paramount are finally moving forward with their inevitable "Transformers" sequel, and they've done it by putting an enormous down payment on a unique, blockbuster screenwriting crew. In a deal that could ultimately pay out more than $8 million, the studios have hired Ehren Kruger ("The Ring," "Scream 3") to write the film's screenplay with original "Transformers" scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, whose four credited films have produced $1.4 billion in worldwide box office.

DreamWorks' willingness to agree to a combined team of A-listers, especially at such lofty rates, speaks to the studio's faith in the writers' ability to deliver (it also, one insider notes, effectively discourages the studio from spending more money to hire someone to rewrite their work).

Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and DreamWorks executives had been inviting writers to propose takes on the sequel as early as May, two months before the first film's Independence Day opening. The studio has been looking at the "Transformers" property as an extended saga, with an expansive mythology built into at least two more films.

But Kurtzman and Orci have been jammed with high-profile writing and producing assignments ("Star Trek," "Eagle Eye") and originally passed on writing the sequel to avoid overextending themselves. With returning director Michael Bay looking to keep them involved and no killer pitches forthcoming, last month the studio finally persuaded them by suggesting they team with another writer (for the second film only; Bay has not committed to a third either.)

As producers, Kurtzman and Orci had hired Kruger to pen another DreamWorks project, "Nightlife," and apparently enjoyed the relationship enough to collaborate with him as writers. (Kruger had recently adapted Stephen King's "The Talisman" for Steven Spielberg, a "Transformers" executive producer.)

Even with the added partner, the logistics should prove complicated. The new "Star Trek," which Kurtzman and Orci are producing and writing for Paramount, and "Eagle Eye," which they're producing for DreamWorks, start shooting on the same day next month. And "Fringe," the sci-fi series Kurtzman and Orci sold to Fox TV last week, starts shooting by year's end.

So Kurtzman and Orci will somehow be writing their part of the "Transformers" script while bouncing around three sets. (At least "Fringe" is co-written and co-executive-produced by "Trek" director J.J. Abrams, so lunch breaks on the "Trek" set should prove productive.)

No deadline has been set for the screenplay, though the film does have a release date: June 26, 2009. So the hiring of several writers was less about trying to complete a script before the potential Writers Guild walkout on Nov. 1 than about having access to numerous voices to address the inevitable changes as this behemoth progresses through its years-long development and production process.

Just the same, the three writers are already pooling their ideas to nail down the detailed story line while Bay has begun pulling together some digital pre-visualization robot designs that didn't make it into the first film. An added benefit lost on no one is that with a CGI-heavy film like this, the preliminary work provides an effective cushion if the writers (or directors and actors next summer) do strike -- effects crews can work ahead and compile action sequences during any stoppage.