TRANSFORMERS Writers Speak Out

By: Jarrod Sarafin, News Editor
Date: Thursday, July 12, 2007
Source: Wizard

TRANSFORMERS screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were at the BotCon where a lot of interesting questions were raised their way. Wizard was in attendance and helped lead the panel with some of those questions. It's surprising where the writers described the differences of what they wanted versus what was in the final cut. Equally surprising was them spelling out what they may want in the future sequels to TRANSFORMERS.

The Dinobots appearing? More Cybertron? More screentime for the Decepticons and their story? These questions were raised and answered by the two screenwriters...

To view all 3 pages of questions and answers, click right here.

On another note, it's been reported tonight by a Paramount press release that the studio has hit the 1 Billion mark for 2007 in its fastest pace ever. Considering how long Paramount has been around, they're celebrating right about now. Over the past week, Paramount reclaimed its status as the #1 studio in market share, which it held earlier in the year, from April 21 to May 3. In addition,, TRANSFORMERS was DreamWorks' fourth straight #1 opening film following NORBIT, BLADES OF GLORY and DISTURBIA.

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Comments/Responses

hanso • Jul 12, 2007, 12:51am •

Sweet! Dinobots and more Decepticons for a sequel. More Starscream! After reading the interview I get the feeling Bay is more to blame for the things that went wrong in this film that these guys. I hope they get to write it a sequel, if not who ever does show up to write should follow their Dinobots idea along with maybe the Constructicons. There is also Galvatron for a sequel.
You know what's cool. We sometimes say that Hollywood people don't read the posts but he makes a direct mention of somehing he read on a fan site. Maybe our ideas will one day be heard and taken into account, although we'll never know it :)

DarkJedi • Jul 12, 2007, 01:05am •

Agreed, Hanso. It was sweet hearing Orci and Kurtzman do that and say those things...that "Raise your hands" comment for the Dinobots had me laughing. Instant and direct feedback.

Btw, I know we have some authors and people inside the industry reading our own site by some emails I've gotten the past few weeks. I wish we could get them to post more often..I'd like to set up some Q&A sessions with you Maniacs.

I'm currently trying to set up some interviews and make it known that we have a lot of Maniacs that would love talking to them..

I think I got one set up for the near future..When that comes in, I'll publish it.

Just wanted to confirm to you that some industry insiders do love reading the talk back sections on the various websites to get a feel on what the people want and what they didn't want.

It feels like I have a large mountain to climb because we sorta faded from the top for a while but we're going to get back there even if I have to press the issue. :)

Jarrod Sarafin

maverickrenegade • Jul 12, 2007, 02:26am •

my question for them is, where the hell did they learn to write? i wonder if they were asked why their TRANSFORMERS script sucked so bad!

madmanic999 • Jul 12, 2007, 08:00am •

#3 your right,
I mean the animated show and animated movie had such rock solid, fantastic writing and dialogue, this whole story was waaaaaaay off the mark.... smell the sarcasm?
Old cartoon was crazy and fun, animated movie was crazy and fun, new movie... crazy and fun. I loved it.... gotta agree on one thing though... MORE STARSCREAM!!!!

Captmathman • Jul 12, 2007, 08:19am •

Nice to hear that the industry does hear us, and hopefully take fan opinions into consideration (along with the many other factors involved in making a movie). I think the combo of a more educated, less naive fan base, combined with a business-savvy and creative body of filmmakers, can lead to some awesome entertainment that will make lots of money.
Thanks for working to set up some interviews, Jarrod; that would be pretty cool!

almostunbiased • Jul 12, 2007, 09:16am •

I hated DinoBots on the cartoon, if they have dino-bots in the movie I might not even bother.
But I want more frickin Starscream. He was always my fav.

mbeckham1 • Jul 12, 2007, 09:20am •

#1 you're right, and I've suspected from the start that Bay was resopsible for the bits that didn't work.

Because the parts that took the cameras off the Autobots and Decepticons and focused on Section 7 and the Pentegon, had the same government conspiracies as The Rock, the same corny humor as Armageddon and the same over ampt patriotism as Pearl Harbor.

I think if Spielberg had directed it himself we could've had "boy and his car and boy meets aliens and good aliens kick bad aliens asses, with boy getting to be the hero and we could've forgonne all that Section 7, Pentagon, and what the hell are GI Joe, also idetifiable with the Special Forces team from the Rock.

I think they would've prefered to have written that film. But the hand of Bay moved them in another direction.

shadowprime • Jul 12, 2007, 09:40am •

To each his or her own, truly... but I had a blast at TRANSFORMERS. Maybe I am too easy to please, granted, but it is a very rare movie... book... comic book...you name it... where I can't find something that I would have done a bit differently, had I been in charge. Same with TRANSFORMERS. But taken as a whole, I have no complaints. It was a fun, entertaining, movie and... while this may be blasphemy to those who loved the cartoon (count me among them!)... it made the Transformers palatable... fun... accessible....almost SENSIBLE... to the non-Transformers initiates out there ( and that is a LOT of folks).

Would I like to see the Decepticons fleshed out more, their personalities developed and differentiated? Yes. More Starscream, in the classic whiny, conniving, scheming mode? Yes. Sure would.

And..again, sorry guys... the Dinobots were fun. Goofy, silly, and fun. I can easily see a TRANSFORMERS 2 much in line with the cartoon... the unearthing of the Dinobots, who join with the Transformers to face off against a big Decepticon threat along the line of Devastator etc (a multi-Decepticon GIANT robot). Sign me up! *S*

Shadow

lincolnparadox • Jul 12, 2007, 09:56am •

Writers are never the problem with a movie. If the screenplay is bad, it is either plished or re-written. Somebody signed off on Orci, Kurtzman and John Rogers' script. Directors have everything to do with how that script is interpreted and shot, sometimes deleting or re-writing entire storylines. Directors are not always the best writers.

Not that I'm saying Michael By sucks. To be honest, I loved this movie. Flaws and all.

drumshine • Jul 12, 2007, 10:04am •

It would really be cool for Soundwave to appear in the next film. He could show up to raise Megatron while Starscream was "leader" of the Decepticons. Soundwave had the coolest voice after Optimus.

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