Frank Welker To Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Daytime Emmys

Congratulations to Frank Welker as he is being honored by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his decades long voice work. While Transformers fans consider him the definitive voice of Megatron, he list of work is very long. Below is the press release about the honor.

New York, NY – April 12, 2016 – The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today announced that Frank Welker, legendary performer of the voices of Scooby-Doo and many others will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy® Awards on Friday, April 29th, 2016 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites in downtown Los Angeles.

“Every child in America has grown up listening to Frank Welker bring the adventures of Freddy Jones and Scooby-Doo to life,” said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS. “Frank is an audible magician. He has made an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of us all with his ability to bring these and so many other characters into our lives and make them real. It is with great pleasure that the National Academy bestows the prestigious Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement to him for his great body of work.”

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Nickelodeon's Isabela Moner Rumored to Star In Transformers 5

Nickelodeon star Isabela Moner is rumored to be in running as the lead female character in Transformers 5 according to The Wrap. The 14 year old actress had performed on multiple Nick TV programs including "Dora and Friends: Into the City" and "100 Things To Do Before High School". The role is described as "Izabella, a street-smart tomboy who grew up an orphan and was raised in foster care. She counts a small Transformer as her only friend… until she meets Wahlberg’s heroic inventor Cade Yeager." There has been zero talk of Nicola Peltz returning as Cade's daughter. Without her character, it probably seemed pointless to try to add the now very busy Jack Reynor (Shane) into the film.

Considering Bay likes to sex things up with the ladies in his films, the potential underage casting is a bit strange but maybe its a directive from Hasbro whose Transformers toy line does not do well with girls and has been dropping in sales volume for the last few years among teens and pre-teens. As is typical of Hollywood and high level corporate execs, the solution is just throw children into the film of the proper demographic. While it rarely works in reality, on paper its comes across as a good solution. I don't have a problem with the idea of a 14 year old being a major cast member of the film as long as the story treats her as her age. By that I mean doesn't treat her as 18 (yuck) or use youth/inexperience to kick off an overall pointless action beat or move plot to next story point because "kids are stupid" type thinking. Neither does shoehorning an underage character into an otherwise adult character work out well. Also bit surprised this rumor even exists considering child labor laws kick in which would strictly limit how much Bay could film with the actress each day. As always, nothing confirmed officially so usual grain of salt warnings.

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Transformers 5 Production Starts In Mid-June

In a post on Acting Auditions, it has been revealed that Transformers 5 principle photography will begin on June 15, 2016 in Detroit Michigan and continue to October 15th, 2016. Additional filming will also occur in London, England during that time period but no specifics on when. Nor were locations in Detroit revealed. So far the only casting that has been confirmed is Mark Wahlberg returning as Cade Yeager and Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime. Michael Bay has said this will be his last Transformers film. With TF5 set for release on June 23, 2017 and TF6 penciled in for a June 8, 2018 release, it doesn't seem possible he could direct the 6th film even if he wanted to.

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Botcon 2016

This last weekend the last official Botcon occurred in Louisville, Kentucky. This doesn't necessarily mean it will be the last Botcon. Earlier this year Hasbro made the decision to withdraw its official support from Fun Productions, the owner of Botcon and the Transformers' Collectors Club (which ends it subscription service at the end of the year). No replacement plans have been announced by Hasbro nor has Fun Productions indicated what its future plans are. Considering Botcon, since its founding in 1994, went a decade without Hasbro's official stamp (but also without it siccing their lawyers on it causing it to die an early death), I do not see why losing the "official" status would prevent it from being held next year.

All it means is that Hasbro is unlikely to participate or send representatives but that is normal for most fan conventions, TF focused or otherwise. On the bright side, it means that 3rd party companies can participate once again after Hasbro had them officially banned from the convention a few years ago (and thus why no news or images below). Of course this speculation assumes Botcon is profitable enough with enough convention goers to continue it (I have never been so no clue on actual numbers). So next year's unknowns aside, below is a summation of news and galleries of Titan Wars toys that Hasbro revealed for release sometime last in 2016.
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IDW June 2016 Transformers Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for June 2016. Four floppies and two trades are coming that month. This month IDW starts a third Transformers ongoing called "Till All Are One" that focuses on Starscream's government and the Council of Worlds. This essentially will replace Transformers vs GI Joe which ends its run this month. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, Star Trek, and more click here.
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Transformers Nominated for Three Emmy Awards (Updated)

While the "main" Emmy Awards nominations are months out for a ceremony that will not occur until after the summer, the daytime ones follow a different schedule. While the show will no longer be televised (due to cost being too high compared to the low ratings it gets), the nominations were announced this week and Transformers: Robots in Disguise and Transformers: Rescue bots each received nominations in three categories total. The winners will be announced on April 29th. For those not aware, the Emmy's are TV's version of the Oscars in the United States so those in the television business do covet the nominations and hoped for wins. The full list of nominations are here.

Update: The winners were announced on May 1st and Transformers: Rescue Bots Feff Bennett won for best performance in an animated program. Complete list of winners here.

Outstanding Special Class Animated Program
Miles from Tomorrowland
Peter Rabbit
Transformers Robots in Disguise

Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program
Danny Jacobs (King Julien) All Hail King Julien
Carlos Alazraqui (Mr. Crocker) The Fairly OddParents
Eric Bauza (Puss in Boots) The Adventures of Puss in Boots
Jeff Bennett (Mayor Luskey) Transformers Rescue Bots <- winner Reid Scott (Turbo) Turbo FAST Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program
All Hail King Julien - Mitch Watson <- winner
Dragon: Race to the Edge - Art Brown, Douglas Sloan
Nature Cat - Adam Rudman, David Rudman
Transformers: Robots in Disguise - Nicole Dubuc, Brian Hohlfeld, Greg Johnson
Wild Kratts - Chriss Kratt, Martin Kratt

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Kirkman Out of Transformers Writers Room

It turns out the baker's dozen that was the Transformers Writers Room last year was really just an actual dozen. From The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman while at SXSW 2016: “I have to say, I was only in that room for a day before I found out that I was having my throat surgery that kept me out of Comic Con.”

Not really major news since his Walking Dead, Outcast and likely future TV responsibilities would have prevented him from writing a Transformers script anyway. This just puts a nail in that particular hope. About the only negative as I see it is Kirkman was one of the few writers in the room that could consistently keep a focus on characterization and story while incorporating spectacle. Based on current info the 12 writers whose two week cram session will influence the next dozen or so years of the Transformers Cinematic Universe are Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Transformers 5), Zak Penn (Pacific Rim 2) and Jeff Pinkner (Lost, Amazing Spider-Man 2), Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down, Transformers 5), Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Steven S. DeKnight (Daredevil, Spartacus), Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man, next animated Transformers movie), Akiva Goldsman, Christina Hodson (no released movies yet) and Lindsey Beer (no released movies yet).

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