Age of Extinction USA Today Article Boasts Fans' Influence on TF Sequel!

[Prognosticator]

GREAT little press release by USAToday!

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-07-11-transformers-bots_N.htm

Buzz off, humans: Transformers fans want more of Bumblebee and company.
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY

When giant alien robots disguised as vehicles show up and start smashing things — including box-office records — the natural reaction is: What comes next?
DreamWorks/Paramount clearly have sequel ambitions for Transformers, which has earned $155.4 million since opening last week.

A rich back story that the Michael Bay film only hinted at can provide endless material for follow-up films, and the rich ticket sales guarantee the studio will want to make them.

"We're waiting to hear what the fans want in that second movie and avoid the trap of what some movies get into," says Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

So far, what moviegoers say they want is more robots.

From the king movie geek Harry Knowles of AintItCool.com to newspaper film critics and regular Joe (and Jane) comments, there is general raving about the mechanical heroes and general grumbling about the excessive screen time given to some of the human characters played by Shia LaBeouf, Anthony Anderson, Tyrese Gibson and Jon Voight.

Optimus Prime, the leader of the good-guy Autobots, doesn't appear until midway through the film, and the personalities of the robots themselves (the rookie mistakes of Bumblebee, the double-crossing of villain Starscream) are given short shrift.

Ryan Yzquierdo, 30, of Chicago, who runs the fan site Seibertron.com, hopes producers will trust the appeal of the robots' personalities.

"I would totally love to see more robot interaction. Most of those characters don't get any development time at all," says Yzquierdo, who has seen the film six times. "With a sequel, they have the opportunity to develop more with the Transformer characters and push that as far as it can go."

Producers say they understand.

"The honest answer is if we're lucky enough to make another one, we would push to get more underneath the skin of these guys," says di Bonaventura, though he believes the humans were important to draw in those not familiar with the robot mythology.

One guy ready for more action is Optimus Prime himself, voiced by Peter Cullen. "(Producer) Don Murphy mentioned to me, 'Only because of the tremendous expense to animate Optimus Prime, he'll be in just a certain amount of things.' But he said, 'Next time, if the movie is a success, you're gonna be in it a ton.' "

Producer Tom DeSanto says some special-effects techniques developed for the film can be used in a sequel.

"It's not like we need to go out and have that expense again of 'How does Optimus Prime transform?' with 10,000 moving parts," he says. "So in the future that expense doesn't have to be prohibitive."

Di Bonaventura cautions, however: "We always think that, and then find out it's not true. These things are always going to be very expensive, and we'll always want them to do more."

 

[MetaToast]

That article hits the nail right on the head for me. I want more bot development and it seems from the article that the movie developers are seriously taking it into consideration.

 

[Prognosticator]

I agree that John Voight was getting awefully close to that thin line where I want to shoot him with a sniper rifle. He had the most cheesy-aweful lines in the movie by far!

Hopefully Voight would be knowhere near the sequel!

 

[Starscreamer]

I want the sequel to be more Decepticon centered with Starscream actually having lines and his traitorous personality front and center. Also bring on Soundwave and more recognizable 'Cons.

 

[Prognosticator]

I want the sequel to be more Decepticon centered with Starscream actually having lines and his traitorous personality front and center. Also bring on Soundwave and more recognizable 'Cons.

You're biased toward SS and the Decepticons....I wonder what gave that away?? t:

 

[lars573]

I want the sequel to be more Decepticon centered with Starscream actually having lines and his traitorous personality front and center. Also bring on Soundwave and more recognizable 'Cons.

I got an Armada rather than G1 vide from the 1 line of Megs-SS banter. Meaning SS may not be disloyal to Megatron.

 

[Starscreamer]

I got an Armada rather than G1 vide from the 1 line of Megs-SS banter. Meaning SS may not be disloyal to Megatron.

Watch the 1986 movie when G1 Megatron says "welcome Lazerbeak, unlike some of my other warriors you never fail me" which he says while glancing at Starscream who noticebly turns around upset by this obvious slam at him. also doesn't the prequel novel make it pretty clear that Starscream does NOT want Megatron to be found?

 

[Golgo-13]

Great news. Does Seibertron.com have an online pertition we all can sign, or at least the film makers can look at for sequel ideas and characters..?

 

[Prognosticator]

I hope so...that means Bay & co. would take into consideration our plea for NO UNICRON!

 

[The Caped Knight]

Great Article

 

[Mike]

I agree with this article to a certain extent. Yeah show a little more of the bots. But honestly, too much of anything isnt always good. What made the bots seem cool was the mystique ,that they were used sparingly. They could appear at anytime and start raising hell. What I love about Transformers is that they had (imo) interesting human characters around when the Transformers werent. Hands down Shia carried this movie. Honestly without human characters the movie wouldnt work.

 

[Prognosticator]

I am sure Bay & others (i.e., Spielberg specifically) understand the importance of balance. Just like how they balanced the "boy & his camero" aspect with the "military" backstory. You're not going to see 75% of the movie as CG, I don't think I would want that.

 

[Avangarde]

Ok people this is it, choose you words carefully when entering curtain boards where influence may be made. If they are indeed serious about taking note of the fans ideas to have any impression of TF2 then it would be wise to be reasonable with your choices. For example don't start asking for outlandish things like every single Dinobot taking on the Contructicons/Devastator in an all out battle, or bringing in not very common characters to do things that they may have only done once that IYO thinks is cool or not. Its simple, ask for several TF's from both factions and condense it down to a neat little package that will give it a great chance of being picked for the next movie. What characters do you think deserve character development and what there character traits should be. Its all about what takes priority over other things, and make it count.

 

[oakzap425]

Can some one explain the "Rookie Mistakes" Bumblebee made in the movie?

 

[One_Oh_One]

Assuming Bay gets a 250 million dollar budget, we'll be getting plenty of Autobot/Decepticon action. That doesnt mean a tidal wave of new Autobots/Decepticons cause that'll ruin the film for sure. Bay setup Starscream in the first, now expand on his character in the sequel. Flesh out Ironhide, Ratchet.
If Bay brings in new robots, they better be part of the plot and have something important to do and important things to say. Not just one or two lines. If i were Bay, i'd watch Spidey 2 and X2 a few times since both movies do a great job of expanding the story and characters.

 

[Darth Elektra]

I would like to see more Decepticons this time around.

 

[Avangarde]

I would like to see more Decepticons this time around.

More We had more decepticons then autobots in the first one, do you mean you want to see more Autobots, or more Decepticon development?

 

[Darth Elektra]

More We had more decepticons then autobots in the first one, do you mean you want to see more Autobots, or more Decepticon development?

Exactly. I would like to see the Decepticons developed a little bit more.

 

[Timstuff]

Harry Knowels is the last person anyone should pay attention to for a TF opinion. Shia Labeouf was one of the best parts of the movie, and reducing his screen time would probably reduce my enjoyment of it. The human element is part of what made TF work. I do not want to see it downplayed and let it turn into some kind of Pixar-esque all-CG-all-the-time deal.

 

[Golgo-13]

Assuming Bay gets a 250 million dollar budget, we'll be getting plenty of Autobot/Decepticon action. That doesnt mean a tidal wave of new Autobots/Decepticons cause that'll ruin the film for sure. Bay setup Starscream in the first, now expand on his character in the sequel. Flesh out Ironhide, Ratchet.
If Bay brings in new robots, they better be part of the plot and have something important to do and important things to say. Not just one or two lines. If i were Bay, i'd watch Spidey 2 and X2 a few times since both movies do a great job of expanding the story and characters.

I think Bay could easily get a 200 mil plus budget just by looking at the B.O so far, and this is not even counting what it will make in the coming weeks or dvd.

The movie doesn't necessarily need to be swamped with characters. There's already a good reason for additional Autobots (Primes signal) and SS escaping was surely a calling for additional Decepticons. I say bring in 4-5 more Autobots, and since most the Decepticons were wiped out in TF 1, bring back maybe 7 new Decepticons which including Megs and SS (and maybe Barricade), which will equal 8-9 Autobots and 9-10 Decepticons.

As many things that i saw wrong with TF 1, despite loving it, it sets up the possiblities for TF 2 nicely.