angelophile | Transformers Movie Updates

Don Murphy, co-producer of the upcoming Transformers movie, has given a number of updates to the progress of the movie, as well as bitch talking with a number of us on his forums. Bitch talking aside, he received his copy of the script on Friday night on shiny, unphotocopyable, silver tin foil. His first action on completing the script was to log onto his website and share some titbits with some of us.

He promised to answer the first five questions he was asked. In addition he said he was pretty happy with the script from John Rogers (whose Kung Fu Monkey webblog I've been hyping). To quote:

"The script HAD to be a movie - that is it had to feel like we could get a big director and that we were on our way to greatness.

I have not spoken to ANYONE else.

But I think it is very good indeed."

Scoop! ;)

Anyway, he was asked five "Yes or No answer" questions.

These were:

Q. Do the transformers arrive on earth in prehistoric times like they did in the cartoon or comic?
A. "Hmmm some do.. so Yes." (This would seem to tie in with earlier hints that the Autobots will be on Earth before the Decepticons Presumably either searching for, or carrying, the Matrix which it has also been revealed will have fallen into the hands of the humans in the movie.)

Q. Will Optimus be a conventional-type (long nose) truck?
A. "Yes." (This caused about 2 hours of arm flaiming, wailing, gnashing of teeth and panic until Don logged on again later that evening, saw the fuss and realized he'd probably misunderstood the question. It transpires that Optimus will be "like the Masterforce toy" ie: a flat nosed semi, just like the original Optimus. The panic subsided.)

Q. If the script were to be made into a movie as it is right now...would it be over 2 hours long? (following the page a minute rule...)
A: "No"

Q. Is Soundwave in it with a more conventional alt mode (ie: not a cassette deck / stereo / cd player / camcorder) ?
A. "Yes." (This confirmed what Don had already suggested, that size shifting was ruled out, but at least confirmed Soundwave would be in the movie in some form).

Q. Does that mean we'll see the Dinobots? If so, will they show up in this movie or a sequel?
A. "One question per person. The answer is NO" (Whether this means no Dinobots at all or just not in this movie is hard to judge but, we'll see.)

On top of that we already know a number of snippets ofinformation from what Don has said before.

This will be (or is certainly intended as) the first a trilogy of movies.

Unicron is mentioned in the first movie and may appear in the third.

There's debate over whether celebrities will feature in the movie. Tom Desanto thinks it should. But it's too early to tell. Don just wants good actors, whether known or not.

Don would rather throw himself off a cliff, apparently, than even TALK to Joss Weedon again, let alone let him direct.

Dreamworks are persuing a number of licenses for vehicles to use in the movie. The same licenses as for the Alternators range of TFs are being persued, we can expect to see some Alternator designs in the movie. (So, for example, Hound as a Jeep Wrangler, Jazz as a Mazda RX-8, Bluestreak as a Subaru, Sideswipe as a Dodge Viper).

The movie will be aimed at the "Star Wars" audience.

Optimus Prime is in it. As are Megatron, Soundwave and Bumblebee. Those are the only confirmed characters.

Don believes Bumblebee will hold the greatest on-screen presence and obviously has a major role in the story.

The movie will mostly be based around the American Southwest.

Cybertron will be seen in the movie.

There will be "core" members for each faction that get a decent amount of development. Others will just make brief appearances, ala Iceman in the first X movie.

There will be an exploration of the Transformers origins in the movie. With "enough detail."

Spielberg knows the mythology stone cold perfectly.

There's "a chance" we may see female-bots appear in the movie.

The characters, within the core teams and past, will include only G1 characters. Don's view is that there are already many G1 characters that will get short shrift so let’s stick with them.

John Rogers has also confirmed:

Ordinary humans will discover the robots,.

There will be scientists who tinker with That What Must Not Be Tinkered With (presumably the matrix).

There will be cool soldier-types teaming up with our new Autobot friends. The name "Witwicky" will be spoken. (Spike and Sparkplug's surname)

Specific design stuff like eye color, etc., will be determined by the Hasbro and concept art humans. John and Don met with Hasbro and apparently the meeting went VERY well.

There's no "Autobots=american cars, Decepticons=foreign models" paradigm. There is a big difference between the two, however ...

The TF's are being chosen because of their personalities. According to John "That's more important to the process of treating them like real characters than the alt-forms to me. Of course, I could be wrong. I probably am wrong. But to paraphrase Ash: "Good. Bad. I'm the one with the word processor."" This was in relation to his suggestion that Ratchet in the movie may become a firetruck rather than an ambulance.

Spike's girlfriend, presumably Carly, is in the movie, but she doesn't start out as his girlfriend.

According to John "95% of the TF's are like 95% of the originals, no worries. But like no yellow spandex and organic webshooters, some stuff just looks better on film. "

It will be a modern day setting. Not 1984.

You'll see other countries.

Megatron has no need to hide so he certainly won't be a tiny pistol.

John's motivation is: "Look, we've got to both respect the massive fanbase and mythology of a twenty-year legacy, at the same time expand it in filmic ways, and streamline it for a new audience who wouldn't know G1 from Dreamwave with a gun to their head. Look at that Citroen commercial -- why shouldn't we make this movie so the big bots become current in today's culture, rather than treating them as some artifact? There's plainly a zeitgeist for it out there. There should be, after this movie, another whole generation of Transformers fans."

Spielberg is very involved in the movie. He pitched out a couple very cool ideas during the development of the story. He takes the project very seriously.

Size-shifting is an integral part of the movie, but basically on a scale that'll allow the transformations from earth-disguise vehicle forms to robot to make sense. ie. Starscream, a 30 foot long jet will be able to become the same scale of robot as Jazz, a 10 foot long sports car.

The Ark features.

On character development John said, "As to who's showing up -- If you want real, well-defined characters, we need to spend more time on the personalities of each Transformer as a charcter. Autobot faction, Decepticon faction, and humans, they all need to come across as real, um, "people." So, much like the X-Men model, a tight focus on a few leads, with an expansion in the possible second and third movie to a bigger roster."

The movie will feature "the coolest two-seater high octane brother." Presumably Jazz.

No little kid sidekicks.

There will be Easter Eggs.

Alternate forms of 'Bots than just the two ... could be. No Triple-Changers -- that "more than one Alt-form" was a reference to something else. (?)

Plenty to chew over there.