New Transformers: Roberto Orci

Showing posts with label Roberto Orci. Show all posts

Transformers Writers Talk Twins, Not Doing TF3

In a new interview from IGN, Transformers: ROTF writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk aobut their long writing careers that began back in the Xena and Hercules days all the way to their curent projects such as Fringe and the sequel to Star Trek. Below are the Transformers relevant portions, click here to read the entire interview.

IGN: ...during the panel you talked about warning others involved in the movie about the way Mudflap and Skids were portrayed in Transformers 2 and how it was going to be received. When you lose a battle like that, do you try and stop from going on every message board to defend yourself? The projects you work on are group efforts, but obviously a lot of people online don't always realize that when they see your name as writers.
Orci: Yeah, you've got to take responsibility for everything. We're all in it together and it's a harmony. It's a joint venture. And a lot of things will be expressed that way.

IGN: Why did you decide not to do Transformers 3?
Kurtzman: I think it was largely a matter of the fact that we have a couple other movies on their feet and some television things happening now, and didn't feel we could responsibly do it and give it what it needed. Cowboys & Aliens is a very full time job right now and we should be focusing on that, because it took awhile to get it on its feet.
Orci: And the second one we didn't think we could responsibly do, and that's why we were so happy to team up with Ehren Kruger, who was amazing. This time, I think even teaming up with him, we wouldn't be able to give him what would be fair. And it's really a matter of time, but again, the best idea should win, and they need an idea now. We don't have one right now, so…

IGN: Mudflap and Skids became such a controversial focal point of the second movie. Have you resigned yourself to the fact that people are going to ask you about them for a long time to come?
Orci: Yeah. I think… Michael [Bay]'s spoken about this. His intentions certainly weren't to insult anybody or anything like that. When you get in with comedians and you're doing voiceovers and you're improvising and you're mixing and matching lines, you don't always see how it's going to turn out. So certainly there was no bad intention I think on anybody's part.

Orci, Kurtzman Not Returning

Roberto Orci has confirmed that he and his writing partner Alex Kurtzman are not returning to write Transformers 3 on the Don Murphy forums.

So Bob and Alex is it true. you wont be involved this time round.
It's true.

Sorry to hear that Roberto, really I am. Are we in good hands with Mr. Kruger? Does he know his Transformers?
He does. He really did his homework. He's awesome.

There you have it. Orci and Kurtzman are out, Ehren Kruger is in. Whether that is good news or not probably depends on your feelings regarding much of the humor of the second film (the Twins, Devastator's balls, etc) as most of that came from the minds of Bay and Kruger. As always, time will tell. Link from TFW2005.

Orci, Kurtzman Talk Ehren, Lack of Trilogy Plans

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, while taking about Star Trek, also discussed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Newsarama. Below is a few segments with the full article here.

Did the success of the first one allow you to go even bigger with this installment?
Kurtzman: Certainly the movie is bigger, but that is definitely not how we thought about it. We feel like the action scenes in these movies are a given to some degree, but they always have to have a serious emotional context or they mean nothing. That means you have to have a small character story at the heart of whatever movie you’re making. For us, it was really coming up with an emotional story that we believed in and felt was sequel worthy.
Orci: And yes, it’s bigger. We have more resources for effects and some of the locations which are just gorgeous and amazing.

NRAMA: With all the destruction they caused, how does the government view the Autobots?
Kurtzman: The Autobots are in partnership with our government, but not everybody here at home trusts them. There’s the question of whether the Autobots are really welcome on this planet, or aren’t they? That’s part of the story that plays in the relationship with the military and soldiers they met in the first one. Because Mission City was under a communication black out, the world is not fully aware of The Transformers. It’s become like the Area 51 which is something that plays out in the movie. Can the secret be kept?

NRAMA: Ehren Kruger is also credited on this script. How much input did he have?
Kurtzman: He was our partner. We all wrote it together. Two weeks before the writers’ strike, we all agreed to do it and literally had a short time to come up with an outline.
Orci: We lived in a hotel room together for three months. Director Michael Bay would come every day to check on our progress. Ehren was on one side of the room. There was a dividing door and Bob and I were on the other side. At noon, we would meet in the middle and trade pages, go back and forth to our respective sides, read each other’s work, and give notes. We were a partnership of three on that one.

NRAMA: Do you see these Transformer films as complete stand alone stories or a trilogy?
Kurtzman: That was not our conscious intent. And Michael was very clear too. We just wanted to make one big gigantic Transformers movie at the time.

Ugo Movie Blog is reporting that legendary voice actor Frank Welker has been officially cast in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Soundwave. The news is from an interview with Roberto Orci as he was promoting Star Trek. Soundwave is a character Welker originated for all three seasons of the 1980s cartoons or G1 cartoon as sometimes referred to that ran from about 1984-1987.

Jordan Hoffman: Who’s voicing Soundwave in Transformers?
Roberto Orci: Welker.

Jordan Hoffman: That’s official?
Roberto Orci: I think so.

Jordan Hoffman: Uh oh.
Roberto Orci: Might be something I just told you for the first time, but I think so.

Fantastic news for die hard Transformer fans who have been trying to get our favorite voices cast in the movie.

Paley Festival Interview With Writers

IGN has posted a video with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci at the Paley Festival (from last weekend I think). The interview asked them about Transformers they wanted to add (Soundwave, Arcee, Ravage, etc) and they also discussed their goal with the movie's main villain. Thanks to The Chad for the link.

More Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen News & Previews

Orci: "Lot about the mythology"

IESB.net interviewed Transformers' writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman as the promoted Eagle Eye that is coming out September 26th. They briefly discuss writing Transformers and plans for the story (but no details of course).

IESB: On Transformers it's a bit different on the writing process because you've got Ehren [Kruger] working as well. How did that work out for you guys?
Bob: We couldn't have done it without Ehren. It would have literally been impossible because we were producing Eagle Eye...
Alex: And with the strike, it really ran out the clock so when the strike ended, we had four months to get a shooting draft together. And so the three of us locked ourselves into a hotel, or I should say, Michael Bay locked us in a hotel... We would work in one room, Ehren in another room and then we'd get together twice a day and trade pages and go over each other's stuff. It was actually great, it was a lot of fun and having him come in with a fresh perspective and not having had any of the baggage we had from the first movie was key to making the second one it's own movie, distinct from the first one.
Bob: And Ehren's the greatest too because he's equal parts fan boy and grown-up and I think he is able to get the best of both perspectives and so it was just a very fun team and it felt, we worked together on a movie he had written for us as producers, but this was the first time to really sit down and write together and I think it was the easiest transition I can imagine.

IESB: Real quickly on Transformers, it looks like it's definite that the Constructicons and Devastator are in, Soundwave is in, can you give us any hints, any clues of what else we are going to see?
Bob: You are going to find out a lot about the mythology. It's officially going to tell you what the Transformers history is and I think a lot of it is going to be taken, somewhat, from gospel. I think we all settled on the fact that the source material and the myth that established in much of the Transformers back story was perfect for this movie. And that should be satisfying to genuine fans.

IESB: One of the things that we got teased about, and that I loved, was looking at Cybertron. Are we going to actually see it this time? Are we getting the same - explain it in the beginning of the movie and then back to Earth?
Alex: I think in the spirit of what we gave you in the first movie, there will be similar things in this movie.
Bob: Meaning, "no comment." (laughter)

Note that while the interviewer mentioned specific TF characters that are unconfirmed to be in the movie, the writers skipped right past it without confirming or denying them.

Sci-Fi Wire Writer's Blurb

Sci-Fi Wire briefly spoke with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman about their goals when they wrote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The full article is here.

"We loved Superman II, we loved Empire, we loved Aliens," Kurtzman said. "And those were all movies that felt like they truly stood apart from what had come before them in great, great ways."

Orci: "And even though they were bigger, per se, it was not just about that. There really was something else going on."

Transformers 2 will bring back many of the first film's characters while introducing some new ones and raising the stakes for all.

"I think the serious answer to your question is, obviously, people will say, 'Look, the explosions are going to be bigger,' but I think Bob and I felt that it was our job--and continues to be our job--to say, 'It's not really about that, because those things, in a way, are a given,'" Kurtzman said.

Orci added: "Yeah, those things are the easy part."

Kurtzman: "What it's about is making sure the emotional stakes feel like they are at a new place and that this movie has a reason to tell itself beyond just 'The studio wants another Transformers movie.' And a lot of that has to do with 'How do you make this movie more emotional? How does this movie stand out from the first one?'"

Orci: "And now that the Transformers are characters, how do you bring them to life some more?"

Transformers 2 is about a month away from the end of principal photography, the writers said.

Orci: Possible Cullen Cameo in TF2

Transformers 2 writer Roberto Orci occasionally pops in on TWW2005's Ask Roberto Orci thread and answers fan questions. As a result, sometimes info of interest comes out including a comment about Peter Cullen possibly performing a cameo in the movie. Here are some recent highlights

- On Peter Cullen's cameo: "Its in the script... let's see if Bay shoots it..."
- On introducing new concepts versus expanding TF1 concepts in sequel: "50/50"
- Writer commentary for movie: "If Bay lets us. He's an attention hog. If not, Alex and I are going to do one for itunes for both movies." (cool idea).
- Orci: "This movie will deal much more with the specific mythology of the Transformers."
- Return of Jazz: "No" (this idea needs to die, why waste story time bringing back Jazz when can use it to introduce new Autobots - TFLive).
- Soundwave's (not) alt-mode: "Without confirming an ice cream truck -- NO." and "No ipod Soundwave."
- Time left in TF2 shoot: "another 5 weeks or so..."
- Update: Orci also says "no" to the Chevy Volt being Soundwave.

A Peter Cullen cameo would be very cool. Hopefully Bay wil film it. As far as Soundwave's alt mode, nice to know what he isn't, be glad to find out what it is. Currently TF2 production is at Holloman Air Force Base for the next week or so, then Egypt. After that is a question mark.

Orci Talks Script, Injury with MTV

Roberto Orci spoke with MTV the other day about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen storyline and Shia's injury. As usual he remains silent on details. Thanks to VAWitch for the link.

“You want to make a different movie, not just a repeat,” Orci said. “It’s a different kind of film that the last one. It’s not a disaster [movie] paradigm.”

What he means is that “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” won’t have multiple storylines told from different points of view all converging in one place for the climax. Instead, expect a different kind of narrative with a different emotional centerpiece.

“We didn’t have to reshoot anything,” Orci said, “but we put [an injury] in there. We wanted to make sure that we put it in so he could be protected, because he’s running around a lot and bashing into things, and he needed something to hold it like a sling [after his hand surgery]. So we wrote it into the script to explain it away.”

“I think there’s an expectation that there will be a deeper mythology where the Transformers came from,” Kurtzman said. “The key is not to get so mired in the mythology that it can’t propel the movie forward. We just touched the tip of the iceberg.”

Orci Comments on Hand, Marketing

Roberto Orci recently commented briefly on Shia's hand and promotional push for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Michael Bay said several weeks ago that Shia LaBeouf's hand would be incorporated into the movie's storyline and Orci has verified that it has been done. "Luckily nothing has to be reshot. Yes, we were on set last week to write it into the movie, not because it's absolutely necessary, but more because we want to make sure Shia's hand is protected for the remainder of the shoot..."

He also had commented that "Starting in November, you'll start seeing the MASSIVE [marketing] push..." for TF2. While Orci makes no mention whatsoever of trailer plans, a marketing push without a trailer just seems like a waste of time to me so I think this is just further verification that November is the launch month of the first teaser trailer.

Now that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been moved to a July 17th release (making it TF2 biggest competitor next year...again), it seems to be that leaves only two movies worth releasing the trailer with - Twilight (taking 11/21 spot vacated by Potter) and James Bond's Quantum of Solace (moved yesterday to 11/14).

Transformers 2 Trailer With Eagle Eye?

Roberto Orci, the great teaser that he is, posted on the Don Murphy message boards regarding when the trailer might come out. "Maybe -- or maybe in front of EAGLE EYE... who knows."

Eagle Eye (out September 26th) stars Shia LaBeouf so it’s a natural fit but at this point I think the studio is aiming for bigger game by attaching it either to Harry Potter or James Bond. I bet some people are kicking themselves for getting something out in time for The Dark Knight considering that movie is on track to become the second highest grossing movie of all time.

Thanks to the site readers for the heads-up.

MTV discussed Transformers 2 with script writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Sadly the interview pretty much confirms what we all knew was probably the case - no Dinobots. "We couldn’t quite figure out how to justify a robot that would pretend to be a dinosaur" Orci said.

When asked about the return of Megatron, Orci responded "That would be silly" suggesting maybe the "Fallen" is not Megs as many believe. Of course this could just them having fun with providing a little misinformation and hiding plans that they plan on the "silly" return of Megatron.

They also revealed the theme of the sequel. Where the first is about a boy and his car, the second according to Orci is "It’s about being away from home. It’s a few years later and Sam is going to finally go to college and he’s going to face being away from home just as the Autobots are having to deal with being away from Cybertron."

"Oh, and what about that title? Why “Revenge of the Fallen”? Orci deadpanned, “Because ‘Transformers 2′ sounds stupid.”"

The picture is from KNX1070 that shows the San Diego Comic-Con display for TF2. Link provided by JFuller.

Orci: "Stakes are a little higher"

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writer Roberto Orci spoke with Sci Fi Wire about Transformers 2 and the story. Pretty much Orci just re-iterated information we where already aware of. Thanks to Chris and Moriah for the link.

"The humor will be similar, but the structure of the movie is a little bit more like many sequels, which is, the stakes are a little higher and the tone is a bit more sci-fi," Orci said in an interview at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 14. "It's got a little more of a sci-fi element. ... The bad guys are little more coherent in terms of what their plan is and what they're attempting to do. So it feels like more of a sci-fi battle."

The sequel will also offer a better balance between humans and robots, added Orci, who was promoting his upcoming Fox SF series, Fringe. "Maybe there's less humans," he said. "The first movie was predicated on the structure of a mystery, at which point, at the midpoint, the Transformers are revealed. This movie is structured differently in that you now know there are Transformers in the world, and therefore you can get right to them. As a result, there's kind of more Transformers throughout the movie."

Orci, who co-wrote the first movie and the sequel with partner Alex Kurtzman, remained coy about what new Transformers audiences will see. Arcee, the female Autobot who transforms into a motorcycle, "was in an early draft of the first movie, and she may make an appearance," he said. "We'll see."

But expect to see Soundwave, the Decepticon who was cut out of the first film. "Yes," Orci said. "Soundwave's in it." It's unclear whether he will transform into a tape deck, as in previous incarnations, or into something else.

Orci also declined to comment on rumors that the film will spend a bit more time on the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron.

But Orci promised that fans won't be disappointed. "If you liked the first one, you'll like this one," he said. "But if you were a genuine fan of what Transformers was and felt a little bit left behind by the first one, I think this one's going to be more for you."

Wizard Interview of Orci and Kurtzman

Wizard Universe has posted a transcript of a Q&A session with Transformers' writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman during Botcon a week or so ago.

The full transcript is here.

The highlights:

- Starscream's role was small due to the movie's structure with the late introduction of all the Decepticons and desire to tell the film from Sam's point of view.
- Arcee was planned for the film but dropped because of scale. Alt mode would have been a motorcycle and compared to the rest, would have been too tiny. Wreckage apparently was in any of their drafts.
- The writers would "love to be involved" in a sequel but "schedule won't allow that."
- The dog was supposed to be a pit pull but Bay decided a Chihuahua would be funnier.
- Provided a neutral answer on the multiple producer roles, basically saying Spielberg was great and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura provided the time they needed to figure out the script while under studio pressure.
- The writers do wish more time could have been spent developing the various Transformers and 2nd tier(my phrase) human characters.
- Provided an on the spot explanation, not related to any sequel, on how could add Dinobots to a sequel: "you would flashback to protoforms arriving and finding dinosaurs on our planet and trans-scanning dinosaurs and reshaping themselves into dinosaurs."

Kurtzman and Orci Post Move Q&A

The message boards over that Transformersmovie.com are hosting a post movie question and answer thread with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman regarding Transformers. Keep in mind that these where the writers of the movie. They had input in the final product but what they put to paper and what Bay shot and edited together (ILM etc) isn't going to match up 100%.

Click here for the thread.

Here are some questions and answers already supplied, with my comments in parenthesis):
Was the Brawl/Devestator mixup on purpose, or was it indeed an editing oversight?
It's an Easter Egg for movie 2. (A joke? Hint of the arrival of the Constructicons? I vote for a joke.)

How come the Allspark created TFs were all Decepticons?
Prime intended to use the Allspark to repower Cybertron as it was intended. Megatron wants to abuse it by creating Transformers directly, which makes souless, primal Transformers. (Ah, hmm ok. So I guess the answer is yes, when "unfiltered" it creats evil Transformers).

Why did you guys make Megatron stronger than Prime? Is it simply that they are are of the same power, but Megatron is simply a little BIGGER or is Megatron just better than Prime is period? Or was Prime just having a bad fight this time?
I think a little of both. I agree that Prime should've gotten in a few good hits.

What were some of your favorites scenes that did not make it in the final cut?
Sam and Mikaela breaking into their own high school after hours with the Autobots.

What happened to Barricade & why wasn't it shown?
Threads for movie 2. (Hmm too pat an answer, I am going with cut scene)

How did Bumblebee regain his voice and why wasn't it explained?
When they Autobots land and introduce themselves to Sam and Mikaela, Ratchet explains that he's been working on BB voice and actually treats him with a regenerative plasma laser. By the end of the movie, it's worked its magic, but I agree it could've been clearer. (wha? The Doctor Who screwdriver thing Ratchet was holding in the Autobots intro? That? Yeah ok).

Was Sector 7 meant to be taken lightly? They came off a little slapstickish. I'm guessing it was just John Tututro's character.
Yes. Turturro was written that way. We didn't want to lose the fun of the cartoon, and we were already playing the military totally straight so we gambled that it would give us some freedom to go a little nuts. (Speaking of, when they going to finish the S7 website story arc?)

How sure can you be that certain eastereggs like Brawl/Devastator and Barricade vanishing will be picked up by the next script writers? What if they don't get it?
So many people from movie 1 are coming back that I'm sure they'll know. (Valid point)

After seeing Weaving doing Megatron, are you 100% happy with it or do you think Welker could have done an even better job then Weaving did?
Honestly, I think either would've worked, but I was happy. (Weaving was so generic, I preferred Welker).

Same question about the face plate on Prime, I know you were in favour of keeping it on permanently.
I think we would've kept it on the whole time. (As a Transfan, keep the mask, for general audience, I see why the decision was made to do without.)

Were these lines recorded by the voice actors?
Many lines were recorded for the movie that did not make it, sadly.

Were the lines that got cut the final Transformers lines you added?
Once we had all the voice actors hired, we wrote a few new lines for each to record that weren't in the script.
A handful of lines didn't make it to the final cut for each Transformer.

In the film we see that the "All Spark, Matrix" or whatever is really called turned whatever machine it touched into a killing bot! Why is this?
It is meant to power Cybertron, not adapt human technology. Also, since all earth's tech is reverse engineered from Megatron, maybe that affects the outcome, too.

Is there any size shifting? We see the Cube transform and shrink in size -- does Frenzy do something similar when he transforms into Mikaela's phone?
We didn't want Mass shifting for the TF's -- only for the Allspark. His head seems bigger than it is because of the shape, but it folds nicely into a phone size.

When Bumblebee is holding the Allspark after getting his legs blown off, why wasnt he healed the way Frenzy was upon his contact with it?
It might've corrupted him. (More likely a mistake, after all where did the extra body mass come from is no mass shifting?)

Bay wants an Aircraft carrier Transformer, Autobot or Decepticon, and who the hell would it be?
When he told us that, we were like, "Good luck getting the money for that!" We knew it would never make it, but we did write it into one of the intermediate drafts. (Like the scale the man was thinking on.)

Dark Horizon's Roberto Orci Interview

Dark Horizons posted an interview with Transformers writer Roberto Orci regarding Transformers, Star Trek and other projects. No real information is revealed (other then Trek script finished and filming starts in November). I left in the Transformers stuff, removed the rest, so if want to read the whole article, click here.

The article:

Question: What is the balance you have to strike between the needs of characters and creating visual set pieces for Michael Bay?
Orci: The hardest balance actually was tone. Honestly, people are going to come at this thing. It's a cartoon, it's a toy line, it's for kids. It's not a movie. One of the ethics was trying to make it as realistic as possible. And yes, it's Transformers and there's a long history of fun in it so it all had to be fun. Those two, realism and fun, are complete opposites so the hardest part was walking the line in tone.

Question: Was the comedy the most fun you had?
Orci: That was fun. But it was also hard. It was the icing on the cake. Everything else had to be sort of in place before we could kind of get to that moment. We had to make sure that the structure of the movie was a solid paradigm that you could hit with a hammer and it wouldn't fall apart before we fully committed to what the humor could be. But it was always implicit in the process. It had to be fun.

Question: Was it your intention to cross age groups?
Orci: Certainly that was the studio's intention. From our intention, it was to try to be true to what the situation is which is you have this boy and everything that he brings to it. You have this world event happening in terms of how the government would react. If the kid's there, he's got parents so a lot of the things are dictated by- - as opposed to trying to fit some kind of a formula, it was more about starting from where we're starting from and trying to extrapolate it realistically and yet as fun.

Question: What would happen if there were snakes on a Decepticon plane?
Orci: I think we'd have a bigger hit. I should have thought of that.

Question: Is the military pleased with this film? What was their input?
Orci: First of all, it was amazing to get their help. The production value makes it such that the production value is far and beyond what the actual budget is thanks to their help. I was a little bit surprised by the fact that they were willing to jump in so readily because there is a slight thematic complexity in terms of what the military's role is. They get a terrorist scenario wrong. They assume it's the wrong people. They blame the wrong people. The only person who figures it out is a woman among all the men. So that was definitely part of something that we wanted to bring to it. So for them to jump on was very, I think, gracious. However, obviously, they also get to show off their stuff so I think both of us got something out of it.

Question: Did they have script approval?
Orci: They didn't have script approval. They can decide if they- - they suggested a few little things but nothing- - there's nothing they wanted to change pretty much that compromised too much. At the very end, the one thing that we went at them over was at the very end, we were going to say that the Defense Department had decided to hide everything. I'm not even sure what's in there now. The wording was such that it sounded a little more sinister than it turned out to be. Put it that way.

Question: How do you write for a director like Michael Bay?
Orci: The first great step is to make sure that he's not involved until you've written two drafts. So we wrote two drafts before we actually showed him anything. That was in order so that we would be confident that again, the structure would be solid enough that he could come in and play and we wouldn't be developing something based on an idea that was half formed. Also it helps when you have Spielberg as the producer. This is our second movie with Bay so we got to know him pretty well. We are able to predict essentially and very much we wrote this movie in a way for him and for Spielberg and for ourselves.

Question: How much did you take from the John Rogers draft?
Orci: We kept the idea of going after the Allspark. The basic idea that they're fighting for this artifact was in his draft but we kept that idea.

Question: Did Michael bring the "boy and his first car" idea or was that you?
Orci: That's something we came up with with Spielberg. Spielberg asked us to do the movie and we were very concerned it being a giant toy commercial with no humanity. We came in and we said, "Listen, we'd love to do the movie but we don't know what it is. Take your movie Close Encounters. It's a great alien movie but it's actually about a guy whose family is disintegrating through his obsession. Do you guys agree that this is a human thing?" And he said, "Yes, and here it is, a boy and his car." That's all he said. That was enough for us to go, "Ahh, okay, now I know what it is." Thus we developed a draft off of that.

Question: You address every possible fanboy thought, but why not try an EMP blast?
Orci: Well, there was an EMP blast at the bass. Not against, because everyone uses an EMP. They use it in Oceans 11. The minute you're in Vegas with an EMP device, aliens... So we did think of it. Maybe you're right.

Question: And there's no reason the aliens wouldn't be impervious.
Orci: Exactly. We considered EMP and we're like, "Nah."

Question: Is this a pre-9/11 action movie?
Orci: In our conversations, that same conversation with Spielberg, when we got off on Boy and his Car, we were like, "Well, we love"- - this is something we'd been wanting to talk to him forever, "We love the old Amblin days. The movies that I saw when I was targeted for this age group, when I was between 11 and 15, Back to the Future, ET, all those kinds of things." So we had literally a conversation about trying to bring back the old Amblin ethic. In a way, this movie was primarily written for what we wanted to see, what we thought Spielberg would want to see and what we though Michael Bay would want to see, hoping that if we succeed in all three that then the audience would want to see it. It's very much a mix of Spielberg/Amblin in a way and Bay/modern day action. That's kind of where it ended up.

Question: Was it good to have certain producers off Transformers?
Orci: No, I love them. We learned everything from them.

Roberto Orci Interview

IESB.net posted an interview with Roberto Orci, one of the TF script writers, where he talks about Transformers and Star Trek 11 (his post TF project).

The highlights:
- Started writing the TF script over two years ago. Don't know how many drafts wrote but project was green lit on the second draft.
- Spielberg's main involvement in the writing process was the "boy and his car" theme.
- Tone for the movie was to be more realistic then the movie but not "lose its sense of fun and those two things are actually at opposition, so it was absolutely a tightrope walk."
- Script wise, in writing it there was no "sequel" setup in mind as "not our responsibility" to worry about a sequel but just to make a good movie.
- Orci indicated he estimated the cost of Transformers before word one would be $150 million but apparently final cost was $147 million. Personally I am curious to know the size of the marketing budget. I am guessing in the $40 - $50 million range.
- Spike's parents, Ron and Judy, are named after Orci's in-laws.
- Orci and Kurtzman are not working on the Transformers 2 script.
- On the Star Trek info, the script is done, shooting starts in November and casting information will be revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.
- The early leaked script reviews of Transformers insured greater security with the Star Trek script with encryption programs and a person hand delivering it (and assume leaving with it once read).

The full article is here.

Based on a leaked script and unconfirmed rumors, its looks like the Ark, the ship that brought the Transformers to Earth, is not apart of the movie continuity. As one of the script writers Roberto Orci asked "One of the questions we always had about the ark: Why would aliens who moonlight as vehicles need other vehicles to travel inside?"

I could come up with many of reasons. One being that interstellar travel isn't really apart of the Transformers capabilities. Another is power and speed. Bigger ship, bigger weapons, faster the travel, usually things that those at war like to have. Finally, the original ark was both a home, base, repair bay and recharging station. Even robots need that.

Final reason is it would explain that annoying hole in the script of why Megatron gets iced in the 1800s but the rest of the Transformers don't go looking until the 100+ years later. The Ark crash landed and everyone was in stasis. Nice, neat and would make a pretty nifty opening pre-credits.

I am sure fans could come up with dozens of practical and not so practical reasons for the use of a spaceship by transforming sentient robots from another world. Have at it in the comments.
(source)

Transformers Cast Announced: Writers Web Chat Summary

Sorry for being late in posting this, life got in the way. Without further ado, the highlights of the today's chat with the writers of the Transformers.

Autobot Cast:
Optimus Prime (known)
Bumblebee (known)
Jazz
Rachet (known or at least hinted at in by Megan Fox)
Ironhide

Decepticon Cast:
Megatron (known)
Starscream (known)
Brawl (known)
Barricade
Bonecrusher (known)
Scorponok (known)
Frenzy
Blackout

Character descriptions:
- Mr. Orci said, "every society has that noble king. That King Arthur."
- Bumblebee is the "same underdog, same G1 character we know and love." and that despite being a Chevrolet Camaro "The clothes don't make the man." Be aware that Hasbro had approached BMW to make a Bumblebee Alternator/Binal-Tech toy but they declined as they did not want to be associated with war toys. I am betting that policy extended to the movie.
- Jazz's attitude is "can't do something with style it's not worth doing at all."
- Rachet continues to be the medic of the group but will not match is Gen One alt mode (good call, his alt mode was ugly even then).
- Ironhide remains the gutsy muscle of the group (hopefully new alt mode too) and make "any Transformer bust an O-ring just with his stare."
- Megs will be explored beyond just the usual evil, destroy this and that mentality.
- Starscream will continue to try "to best Megatron."
- Brawl is an "extremely pissed off Decepticon" and is based on other iterations of the Transformers (not sure which one) which may continue in sequels.
- Bonecrusher is basically Megatron's willing slave.
- Barricade os the Saleen Mustang police car seen here and who likes to hunt down the Autobots.
- Scorponok is closest to the Beast Wars iteration with a "little bit of flavors from the other things."
- Frenzy is the replacement Soundwave. The alt mode will be a stereo. Before you moan, remember that the goal is pseudo realism, so could you take seriouslyseriousily as some 3 foot tall Decepticon? I couldn't. Better to not do it at all if can't do it right, so good decision in my opinion.
- Blackout is the EMP guy. Has the weapons to knock out most electronic items, which of course means uh ohs for the military and the Autobots.

Q&A portion:- The writers grew with G1 so they believe they are very familiar with the Transformer universe.
- They use the toys to help figure out the words that fit the character.
- The movie does not require to audience to be familiar with the TF universe but there will be references that fans will understand.
- The ratio of characters is greater then the rumors 70% humans, 30% robots. How much greater was not indicated. Humans do have a strong part as the approach is Jurassic Park in the awe of the first interaction with sentient machines on a grand scale.
- "There is no cheating. No mass shifting." (hince why no Soundwave)
- The reason for more Decepticons then Autobots is to emphasize that in order for the Autobots to triumph, they would need to "use togetherness, unity, [and] friendship."
- The hate/hate more relationship between Megatron and Starscream will be honored.
- For weapons, in robot mode, mostly the pulse kind, in alt mode, whatever matches that mode such as missles, bullets etc.
- For voice actors, "everybody you would want to be considered is being considered."
- To close the chat, a mention was of an upcoming contest - Write a line for Optimus Prime. The site for it will be live in a few weeks and the winner will have their line spoken by Optimus.

Thanks to TFformers.com for the summary which you can read here.

Roberto Orci Drops Some Hints

Roberto Orci is one of the writers on the live action Transformers movie. He decided to head on over to Don Murphy's message board and hint some possibilities on the upcoming movie figuring "why should I be the only one muzzled."

The gist of his hints is that Starscream might show up in his classic treacherous mode, Optimus Prime will clearly the OP, a teaser trailer is coming t hat "will rock" and Soundwave "will be closer to the one you know and love than the rumors would lead you to believe." He also confirmed the TF name alias and aiming for an "official coming out party on July 4th.

Thanks to tformers.com for the message summary.

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