Transformers Linkfest

Del Ray Official Announces Transformers: Exodus
The publisher has officially announced the release of Transformers: Exodus, subtitled "The Official History of the War for Cybertron" which is a tie in book to the video game. Both the hardcover book and game are being released on June 22, 2010. The novel, which like W4C, is being treated as canon by Hasbro, will tell the origin of the Transformers civil war and the rise of Megatron and Optimus in their leadership roles. Click the link above if interested in the full press release.

Alex Kurtzman Comments on Transformers: Prime
In an article from Broadcasting & Cable, Hasbro Studios president Stephen Davis spoke about their approach to building The Hub channel. As part of that Kurtzman commented on his and Roberto Orci's involvement with the Transformers: Prime cartoon, '"There is a stigma about things being done by committee creatively, but there is so much to be done, so much of a well to draw from.” Everyone feels protected to do their best work because the message from the top down is that you’re supported in your vision.” Kurtzman adds that he and Orci would “like to work with [Davis] forever.”' So the complete lack of any meaningful information is why stuck this here instead of a separate post. Click the link above if interested in the whole article.

Official War for Cybertron Covers
In case you missed it when the official website first posted them early this month, Activision has officially released the covers to each of the versions of War for Cybertron including officially confirming that the Wii version is being called Transformers: Cybertron Adventures.

Mark Ryan Appearing at TFcon 2010
Mark Ryan will be at the TFcon 2010 which will be held in Toronto, Canada from July 17th-18th. Ryan is the voice of Bumblebee and Jetfire in the movies. He is highly likely to reprise the role for Transformers 3. I wonder if he will be doing the on-set Transformers voices like he did in the first two films and will he drop a few spoilers.

Recon Ravage Shipping
For those that participated in the NEST Global Alliance mail away offer for Recon Ravage, you will be happy to know that the toy started shipping. Click the link to view the NEST specific packaging and letter (from Optimus Prime) that arrives with the toy.

Disney Label Monocolor Buzz Lightyear
Click the link for a gallery of images of the black and white version of Buzz Lightyear that transforms in to shuttle. This B&W scheme is a continuation of what was done for Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse Transformers. I think this and the color version of this Japan exclusive is coming out in June.

Orci, Kurtzman Working on CG Transformers: Prime

When the next Transformers cartoon debuts on Discovery Kids this fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Transformers movie writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, "are working on ...the "Transformers" CG-animated series for upcoming Hasbro/Discovery channel the Hub. The CG cartoon is going to be called "Transformers: Prime" according to actor Jeffery Combs website.

It is unknown what style of CG that will be used. Hasbro (and really most cartoons) has used an Anime influenced style for the last decade or so likely to continue that as it’s believed kids prefer it. However, Orci and Kurtzman are clearly fans of the Beast Wars era of cartoons (see use of Sparks as example) which might give hope that Hasbro will move away from this and maybe attempt something that actually takes advantage of advancements in CG since Beast Machines left the air.

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.

ROTF Writers Talk Racism and The Twins

One of the things I have noticed in recent interviews with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman is a small degree of distancing from the more crass humor in the movie, especially from the Twins and "testicles" on Devastator. The duo spoke with Film School Rejects about The Twins and completed the "don't look at me" transition.

Cole: I heard that the gold tooth was Michael Bay’s idea, but do you have any response to those who found The Twins offensive?
Orci: Number one, we sympathize. Yes, the gold tooth was not in the script, that’s true.
Kurtzman: It’s really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it. I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie.

Cole: Were you offended by them?
Kurtzman: I wasn’t thrilled. I certainly wasn’t thrilled.
Orci: Yeah, same reaction. I’m not easily offended, but when I saw it, I thought, ‘Someone’s gonna write about that.’”

From what I have read, pretty much the source of most of the humor that people have groaned about and found offensive came from the mind of third ROTF writer of Ehren Kruger and director Michael Bay. I am sure there is some mix and match from all four but based on the duos previous writing efforts the rumor has validity. I guess depending on your view of the movie's humor, this makes Kruger a new writer to watch or one to avoid. (via TFW2005)

Dark Horizon Interviews Transformers 2 Writers

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman continue their online promotion of the movie in an interview with Dark Horizons as they contrast working on Star Trek with Abrams and Transformers with Bay and their writing carrers. Snippet below, full interview here.

Question: How seriously do you take the good with the bad? I mean, Star Trek received over 90 percent rave reviews, while Transformers, not so much. Do you take it seriously? Do you ignore it? Why do you think this is?Orci: We take it seriously, in as much as a real fact of a media blogosphere dialogue. And as its own phenomenon, that’s a fascinating thing to engage in one way or the other. We tend to separate that from what an audience feels. And we tend to go by the audience. You know, you always want to make sure that you don’t overlook a valid opinion that has something constructive to say, merely because it’s negative.
Kurtzman: Nobody can honestly say that they don’t care about reviews. Like, nobody. But we knew the minute we agreed to do Transformers 2 that these were gonna be the reviews, no matter what we came up with. And that’s just a fact of life that you accept going into it.

Question: Let me ask you this. You’re working with two very, very filmmakers, with Abrams and Bay. And I’m just wondering when you’re working on a Bay film, what the different process is in writing a script, for a director who has very different visual sensibilities to somebody like J.J. Abrams?
Kurtzman: I mean, it’s a very different process. They’re very different directors. They look for very different things.
Orci: But part of that difference comes from the fact that they’re different franchises. They require different things.
Kurtzman: Yeah. That’s right.
Orci: You know, it’s not just that we’re writing for Michael Bay. We’re writing for Transformers. And Michael Bay is perfect for Transformers. And J.J. is perfect for Star Trek, because what Star Trek requires is something else. So, we tend to look at it as, the show is the boss. All of our boss. And we’re servicing that more than anything. You know, in terms of differences in the experience. Obviously, Transformers 2 was unique, in that it went down in the middle of the strike. We were writing the movie three months before it was about to be shot, therefore we were handing Michael pages that night. You know, every night, so they could be prepared. Which was different than Star Trek, where we had six leisurely months to go write two drafts.

Question: Right. And Star Trek is very much a character-based film. I mean, you’re dealing with both iconic characters, but also you’re developing relationships in that particular movie. This one, you’re really creating, I guess, a lot of set pieces for Michael to work with. And I’m just wondering, how frustrating is it for you when you do have such limited time? And does that affect the final product, as screenwriters?
Orci: In terms of “frustrating,” we try to think of it as just an interesting challenge. I mean, putting together a movie of this size, coordinating with Michael and production and the military and Hasbro, is a fascinating thing to do. You know, we try to sort of learn and enjoy, and not be paralyzed by the fear of it. On the other hand, it’s not to say – it’s just a different experience, going off to write a script for six months, you know?

Question: What do you do differently as a writer, when you’re doing something like a Transformers 2, that you don’t have to worry about when you’re doing a Star Trek, or any other initial film?
Orci: Well, one is, we’re making more room for the action. Because we know that Michael is going to want to push that, and get every dollar on the screen. You know, you don’t just go to Egypt for a two-minute sequence. If you’re going to be at the Pyramids of Giza and be one of the first people to be allowed to shoot there, you really want to maximize that. And we know that that’s going to be the case with him. So, of course, there’s a different kind of a pacing.

More Transformers Talk from Writers

SciFi Scanner has posted an interview with Transformers 2 writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci as they talk about writing scripts and fandom. Snippet below, full interview here.

Q: Do you think you would have ended up with a different screenplay were you not writing under the pressure of the strike?
AK: No. We had a fairly long postproduction time. We literally finished writing the movie two weeks ago. We were writing robot dialogue right up to the last minute, until they locked picture and sound and they took the print out of our hands.

Q: Do you write a screenplay differently for a director like Michael Bay than you would for J.J. Abrams?
AK: Absolutely.
BO: It's half that and half you're writing to what the franchise is. We're not writing big because it's Michael Bay; Michael Bay is right for Transformers.
AK: With a director like Michael, who's extremely specific about what he does and does not like to do, our job is to backstop him to a large degree and keep on him about plot and logic and emotion. We very rarely get resistance on that. He has such an innate understanding of what audiences want to see. Where he'll push back is if he thinks logic is somehow overriding the fun for the audience.
BO: You've gotta have a pretty damn good reason to tell him why he's gotta lose one of his awesome sequences.

Q: Are Transformers fans as ravenous as Trekkies?
BO: Transformers fans taught us how to deal with Star Trek fans. And they're both heavy-duty. But Transformers fans taught us how to interact, how to turn the conversation constructive a little bit, and not just have it be, "You suck. Go jump off of a building, please."

Q: So when a fan says the Autobot twins are the Jar Jar Binks of Transformers...
BO: My favorite was someone called them Car Car Binks.
AK: Look, I can tell you that Michael designed those characters to reflect what he thought would be funny for kids. And we go with the ride. Literally.

Q: Did you learn anything from writing Transformers 2 that's been helpful in formulating Trek 2?
AK: They're so different. You're putting on a different hat. And the choices that you make in Transformers with Michael as the director versus Star Trek with J.J. couldn't be more 180 degrees in the opposite direction. So I don't know that for me there's a natural corollary between them.

More ROTF Talk From Writers

Transformers 2 writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman spoke with TrekMovie.com (but sadly not me) about Revenge of the Fallen. Topics include how they almost didn't write the sequel, how used sequels for inspiration, working with Ehren Krueger (due to writer's strike), Transformers history, and more. As usual some of the article below, rest here.

TrekMovie.com: Speaking about that mythology, the first film felt like it was about a war amongst alien robots playing out on Earth. This time there are links to ancient Egypt and more. Is there an attempt to make this more about us Earthlings, with the mythology tied to our history?
Roberto Orci: Yes. That was always part of the G1 (Transformers Generation 1) idea, that Transformers had crash-landed here in prehistoric time. We didn’t exactly stick to that, but there is a rich history of they’ve been here a long time and they are somehow wrapped up in our ancient history.

Alex Kurtzman: We are trying to stay true to the spirit of a story that delves into the idea of going beneath the surface of both the history of the Transformers and our own race. The thing Optimus Prime is always talking about is how similar our races are, and the idea is that there is a reason for that.

TrekMovie.com: For these movies, there seems to be a big amount of fan interest in what Transformers make it in and which ones don’t. How do you make that cut?
Alex Kurtzman: It is a mix actually. Our side of it is that we end up putting in Transformers that fit into the story. Certainly there some that we wanted in the first that we couldn’t put in, that we ended up getting in the second. The decision is about how we can do it organically. There is also a mandate from both Hasbro and the car companies to put certain robots in. What we say to them is ‘great, if we can find a way to do that in a way that makes sense, then let’s do it.’ And Michael certainly is very specific about the kind of cars he likes to put on screen and how he wants to use them.

TrekMovie.com: You guys are also creating a lot more of your own new Transformers for this one. Is it more fun for you to branch out and create your own characters instead of just using the original characters?
Roberto Orci: Not particularly.

Alex Kurtzman: I think weirdly we always find a way to love who ever we are writing about. Certainly, it was not hard to find ways to love Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. So we feel a lot of ownership over the direction of those characters already. So we don’t make a huge distinction between them and the new ones, but that said, Optimus has a voice that was distinct and pre-established that we did not want to veer away from.

TrekMovie.com: Looking back at the first film, there was a lot of broad humor, like the robot peeing lubricant. I note this time you guys have Rainn Wilson from The Office playing a part. Does this film have a more high-brow kind of humor in it?
Roberto Orci: It is the most sophisticated low-brow humor there is.

TrekMovie: So in the end, what is the biggest difference between the first and second films?
Roberto Orci: Obviously the theme is different. The first one was about stepping into adulthood by getting your first car and how that leads to sexuality and freedom. This one is more about being away from home, with Sam going away to college, while the Transformers are away from their home, and what are the responsibilities as you leave your nest. Cosmetically, this one is bigger. I think it is more tightly plotted, just as a result of getting better at it and understanding the universe better, and it benefits from the lessons of the first movie, both from fan interactions, and our own interactions of seeing what we thought worked and what different.

Orci, Kurtzman Talk Testicles and Transformers 3

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have stepped out of hiding recovering from their Star Trek marketing to start talking about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In an interview with io9.com they talk about Devastator's testicles (yep he has them) and possibilities of the third movie. Snippets below, the full article here.

Although they couldn't remember the origins of Devastator's testicles. Orci thought that Bay had demanded "a big pair of testicles." But Kurtzman reminded him that it was actually co-writer Ehren Krueger's idea, when the three of them were holed up for a few months writing the script after the writers' strike. "The testicles are in the script," Kurtzman said. "Well, it's a construction machine, so you of course have wrecking balls. And Michael, immediately, of course, loved it."

It's been widely reported that Orci and Kurtzman are definitely not writing the script for Transformers 3, but actually they sounded pretty open to doing it. "We never say never, but since the movie's not even out, it's impossible for us to go, 'Yes, we're in,'" Kurtzman said.

As for the photo above, I am guessing it is Starscream's head but really have no clue what or where from. Just grabbed it from the article because it was cool looking.

Film Journal Talks Metal with TF Writers

I guess Transformers I and II writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have recovered from their two month promotional tour for Star Trek as Film Journal (found on TFW2005) has posted a new article about the duo. Unless they are prepping the help with The Proposal which they produced. Anycase, much of the article covers ground tread before in other interview over the last year about looking at other sequels for inspiration, writing a story with an emotional core, getting locked in hotel rooms with Ehren Kruger after the strike, and so forth. The entire article can be found here.

"For us, the action always emerges from the characters; the audience tunes out random action scenes that don't move the plot forward or take the characters in some new direction," Kurtzman says. "So in Revenge of the Fallen, there are several sequences that we pitched to Michael in detail as part of the characters' stories and he ended up shooting them almost exactly as we pitched them. Of course, he also comes up with great ways to embellish the sequences and no one is better at that than he is."

That information will come in handy as the duo makes their long-planned transition to directing. "The plan is to find the right film for us to direct in the next couple of years," Orci reveals. "We're happy being the guys that write the words, but we want to try everything. It's possible that we'll each direct our own projects, but we might be too jealous of what the other is doing and so we'll both have to do it!" While neither claims to have a dream project right now, there is one franchise that Orci says he's hoping to see realized on the big screen someday. "I'd love to see [Nintendo's] The Legend of Zelda done right."

Transformers Stars, Writers Talk Trilogy

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox along with the film's writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk about revisiting the film for a third time (for July 2012 release) as Bay is taking a yearlong Transformers break. Below is part of the article and also a video of interviews with Shia, Ramon, and Megan.

... said Megan Fox, "I'm really happy to have been a part of these films, obviously, and if they wanted me to come back for a third one, I would. I owe them," she laughed. "I owe them my career, really."

"I'd like to see some version of Galvatron," said Roberto Orci.. "I would like to see Unicron, too, and really anything that ends in the word 'ron.' Dinobots! I think, eventually, the Dinobots are going to have to happen."

Although some fans remember the dinosaur-shaped Transformers as being a bit cheesy, Orci doesn't see it as an obstacle. "I didn't say it was going to be my problem [to overcome as a writer]," he laughed. "But as a fan, I would like to see some Dinobots."

...Kurtzman and Orciaren't completely sure they'll be returning for "Transformers 3." "It's totally possible that, just for the benefit of 'Transformers' to stay cool and awesome, we should have to let new people come in and do it," Kurtzman said.

"I don't think [we'll make 'Transformers 3'] right away, but I wouldn't kill it either," LaBeouf explained, saying that just like Michael Bay, all the stars need a break from the giant robot franchise. "I don't think we're going to do one anytime soon. I think we all need a break from each other and a break from the project. We just need to collect ourselves and come back to it. They're hard to make, man."

Botcon RoTF Writers Panel

At Botcon's first day, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman participated in a question and answer session about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that provides few bits of new information. Highlights below, the full breakdown is here. Picture from here.

- Before the strike, only has a 20 page outline.
- Immediately after the strike Bay locked the three writers into hotels room to get a shooting script ready as shooting started four months later.
- Shia's damaged hand (due to a car accident) does not appear until the third act and writing it into the film was difficult.
- Did not rule out an appearance of Unicron or Primus in the franchise
(They have indicated in past interviews they don't rule out anything until they actually start writing a script so that answer doesn't mean a whole lot).
- When asked if the Matrix of Leadership was in the movie (as indicated in the adaptations), they replied "That's a very good question!"
- Various combiners show up unexpectedly, with no buildup.
- The Twins are mostly comic relief. Their ice cream truck mode plays a key plot point in the movie (Not in any adaptations I read).
- Hasbro pretty much gave the writers carte blanche and only offered suggestions the characters. Writers went through Transformers school (which Bay did for the first movie) that provided them with character development and story direction.
- Many characters in the sequel the writers wanted for the first but did not make the cut.

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.

Official Transformers 2 Story Synopsis?

Latino Review has posted what could finally be the official story synopsis for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The synopsis is from the May/June 2009 issue of Creative Screenwriting where they interviewed Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Sounds legit too as it supports pretty much everything we think we know about the movie. Thanks to The Chief for the link.

When the story begins, the Autobots and the military have been waging a secret war against the Decpticons. As more of the giant robots continue to resurface, though, it becomes apparent the Transformers have been part of Earth's history for longer than they'd led mankind to believe. One group of bureaucrats even womders if the Decepticons are only appearing because of the Autobot presence. Desperate not to leave Earth undefended, Optimus Prime turns to Sam and asks him to become a human advocate, someone who will convince mankind that the Autobots should be allowed to saty. Sam refuses to believe he can help, though, wanting to go to college and live a normal life - as normal as possible with the strange thoughts and visions that have haunted him since being exposed to the All Spark's primal energies two years earlier. Alas, Sam's refusal will have harsh consequences for himself, the Autobots and possibly the entire world. The Decepticons fallen leader, Megatron has been resurrected and brings with him an ancient evil from the Transformers own history.

"All great sequels have an incredibly frightening bad guy," says Kurtzman, amending their earlier list of traits, "who challenges your hero in a way that is unique," They found such a character in the comic-book Transformers mythology, a primordial creature known only as The Fallen. "He was one of the first Transformers. He was Lucifer. He was the fallen angel. And it just felt like a great place to come from."

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

Writers Talk Transformers 2 Action and Comedy

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman dicussed tone and balancing the action and humor of the sequel with SciFi Wire. Thanks to DeceptiFreak for the link.

...the sequel remains tonally consistent with their first giant-robot movie. Early teasers suggest a darker or more somber tone, but the writers said that is only one element of the new story.

"Actually, I think you'll find that it has all the same tone of the first movie," Kurtzman said in an exclusive interview on Thursday night in Hollywood, where he sat on a panel at the Paley Festival on his Fox series Fringe. "The story's a little smoother, and it's a little bit darker, so it does dip in there a little bit, but it has all the same humor, if not more than the first movie."

If the first Transformers shifted between action and comedy with some darker undertones, Orci thought the duo did an even better job balancing those elements the second time around. "I think it's a little smoother, actually," Orci said. "We had the first movie for practice. So we were able to hone in on the tone a little bit more sharply in focus on the second movie."

One of the spectacles visible in the teaser is a scene in which a transforming robot brings down an entire factory. The writers hinted at the consequences of that event. "It could be a trap, that scene," Orci teased.

Orci and Kurtzman Video Interview

The Hollywood Reporter has posted a video interview with Transformers 2 writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman as they discuss working on the sequel and their decision to return. The goal was to top the first movie and show how the government and sentient robots would interact and maintain secrecy. The scope is "absolutely bigger and a lot more robots."

Orci and Kurtzman Talk Transformers

Sci-Fi Wire has posted a brief interview with Transformers writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen using many of Orci's recent Q&A responses to attempt to get more detail. I am guessing this an add-on of the much longer Star Trek interview the website has posted earlier in the week. Thanks to middlerealm for the link.

Below are select portions with the full article here.

You guys were not originally going to write the sequel. Is that right?Orci: Correct.

What changed your mind?
Kurtzman: Well, we resisted it for a while, because ... the first movie was so ... tough to find, you know? ...the story was not immediately obvious to us. And ... they really wanted us to do it. And we said, "We just can't do it until we know what this is." ...We spent a lot of time thinking about the sequels that we really loved as kids. You know, Aliens and Terminator 2 and Wrath of Khan and Empire Strikes Back and Superman 2. The thing that all of those movies had in common were that they stood on their own as films.
Orci: Yeah, it was both that and we were afraid we were not going to have literally the time to do it. The [writers'] strike was looming, we were in the middle of [writing] Star Trek, etc. So when they agreed to give us help in the form of Ehren Kruger [The Skeleton Key, The Ring 2], who is fantastic, we realized the three of us really could do it and not just phone it in.

And you had a mandate to develop a bigger movie?
Kurtzman: That doesn't really mean anything to us, honestly. Like, we always get to the action last. The action is born of whatever challenges your characters are facing...
Orci: The theme started coming out of Sam leaving home, now. It's two years later, he's going to college. ... What are the responsibilities and the cutting off that goes on when you leave home? And that mirrors the fact the Transformers themselves are away from home. And in a new home. And what are your responsibilities as you kind of step out into the world on your own without your support system? ...

There are so many [Transformers] that you have to pick from. How do you winnow them down, how do you add the new ones, integrate them?
Orci: Well, the easier one, obviously, is the fact that we inherit certain ones from the previous movie and from the fact that Prime and Bumblebee are kind of the two front-and-center relationships. ... In terms of villains, it was again going back to all the source material. ... We got a bunch of the comics again, we got a bunch of the old cartoons, and just started looking for kind of the most elemental bad guy that kind of jumped off the material, and we found one in the Fallen.

And you've got to bring Megatron back.
Orci: Exactly. ...But then many of them were also selected during the strike while we couldn't do anything, as a matter of necessity, by Hasbro and by [director] Michael Bay for some of the action sequences. They literally had to start designing somebody.

What's the name of the gigantic first one that you see?
Kurtzman: Wheelbot. ... (Temp name for Demolisher from call sheets)

Jetfire, RC, Mudflap on the Autobot side?
Orci: Yeah, right. Jetfire was in the treatment. Mudflap might have been one of those in-betweeners. ...

On the Decepticon side, Starscream, Soundwave, the Fallen and then the Constructicons, which are several different ones: Demolisher, Hightower, Long Haul, Mixmaster, Rampage and Scrapper?
Orci: That's them.

So they're all there?
Orci: Yeah.

There's still more, right? I mean, there's others?
Orci: There are. ...

You've got a girl robot for the first time, Arcee. Do you ever deal with why she's a girl robot, or is that just one of those things?
Orci: We may still, as we go through and see the final finals, but we've gone back and forth on that. ... Some of the fans debating, "Oh, man, if there's some lame explanation I'm going to hate it" versus "They'd better explain it." So. We'll see how it ends up. We honestly have things in our back pocket; we'll see which one works better.

And you, Bob, were quoted as saying you were trying to get Leonard Nimoy to do the Fallen?
Orci: He originally was the voice in the animated movie, and at one of the conventions, Alex and I actually spoke to him about it, and he's like, "Yeah, I'd be open to that." But it'll be Michael's decision.

Have you talked with Michael about that?
Orci: Oh, sure. ... He's like, "Hmm." And we're like, "You know you're cousins, right?" [Nimoy's wife is Michael Bay's cousin.]

There was also some talk about Frank Welker, the original voice of Megatron, and whether he'd actually end up in the movie after all?
Orci: Exactly, and I think they're in the middle of hashing that out. We'll see who we get.

Orci, Kurtzman Talk Writing Transformers 2

Transformers 2 writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci spoke with FirstShowing.net in a two part interview about their two summer projects. Part 1 covered Star Trek and part 2 was about writing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, their other projects and approach to movies in general. Below are choice bits from the interview, the full text is here.

Christopher Nolan did a lot of research into figuring out how to make The Dark Knight, or for that matter, any sequel better than the first film and to make it better in every way he could. For Transformers 2, is this something you guys actively thought about moving into it? Or how much actual–
Roberto Orci: You bet. We resisted it for a long time.
Alex Kurtzman: Especially because the first movie was such a big success and then it was like let's just make another one. For us, I think the credibility that we would've lost — forget with the world, but just with ourselves — to saying yes before we really had a good idea, would've been really disappointing. I think for us, before we locked into what the idea was for the movie, we had to say: "What are the sequels that influenced us as kids and why did they influence us?" The answer was always the same. It was that the movie stood on its own, completely on its own and was a–
Orci: Like Superman II, Empire Strikes Back–
Kurtzman: Aliens.
Orci: What are the movies where the sequel was as good as the first one? Those are the things we referenced and thought about and watched again.

What was the timeline in connection with the writers' strike? Were you guys brought on before the writers' strike?
Orci: It was insane. We literally started breaking stories two weeks before the strike. In two weeks, we generated an outline. It was pens down the minute the strike hit. We didn't deal with Michael at all during the strike.
Kurtzman: They prepped the movie off of the outline.
Orci: Yeah, but we had to come up with set pieces and sort of the basic thrusts of the movie and Michael prepped a lot of it. And the second the strike ended, it was like two months — I'm not exaggerating — two months between starting to write and day one of direction. So it was a crazy, crazy race to get it done.

How many changes or how much did Michael Bay add when he did his, as we all reported, his notes about the sequel and story ideas for the sequel during the writers' strike? How much did that play into what eventually became the final script?
Kurtzman: He actually didn't do anything other than, in his own mind, elaborate on action sequences. We had set up the foundation for a lot of those action sequences and he kind of came in and just–
Orci: Add a sight gag here or a joke there.
Kurtzman: But story-wise, it was kind of what it was and it never changed from the first thing we pitched to what we ended up shooting. We didn't have a choice. It was what was there.

Have you chosen to include certain robots because people really wanted to see Soundwave or something like that?
Orci: Yeah, sure, absolutely. We excluded Soundwave from the first movie because we knew that the version we were discussing was going to be too off-putting and we put other things in there based on fan responses. Same with the sequel.

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.