Welcome Mr. Roberto Orci, you may ask him questions

shroobmaster · 06-21-2008, 09:08 AM

Just wanted to say a big thank you to Mr. Orci and all the team that worked in the first movie.

Thanks to the live action movie, I got back into Transformers and in time for Transformers Animated!

IronicHide · 06-21-2008, 09:23 AM

Thanks, Mr Orci, for answering my question. That's a bit too good.

If it's not too rude to ask...

If you want this film to be better than the first, where do you feel there would be room for improvement?

Thanks again!

Ash from Carolina · 06-21-2008, 10:22 AM

Should get the thanks out of the way first. A big thanks to Tr4nce for putting all the questions and answers together and a big thanks to Roberto for dropping by to chat with us since he talks about cool things like the robots instead of the humans.

Will the Decepticons have personalities like in Beast Wars and Animated or will they be more "Grrr, Decepticon mad, Decepticon smash"? Since you've had chance to prove the suits wrong on the robots talking will they get more talk time in the second film?

Will the Decepticons get toughened up the second film? First movie started out with Blackout tough enough to take on a whole military base alone but by the end they had become so weak even the humans could take them down which seemed a bit anti-climatic. Will Decepticon fans have bots they can proud of or will we be left hanging our heads in shame for being fans of such easy to beat bots?

I know it's rather nitpicky of me but will Megatron have a full time arm cannon this time?

How would you compare the Decepticons in the second film to the Decepticons from the first film?

Primus · 06-21-2008, 10:46 AM

Hey Bob,

Welcome to the boards. Although my first love is TFs, I have to say I am extremely excited about "Fringe". You guys seem to have a winning formula on hand for this series. I loved "Alias" although there were too many loose ends at the finale, and I'm a huge fan of "Lost" as well.

Also, I'm really jacked about the "Star Trek" movie. I think you guys took the right approach with that and I think it will really pay off. I hated to hear the release was pushed back, but hopefully it allows for even more ... well ... Star Trek goodness.

Anyway, on to TF, you guys did a great job adapting a cartoon property to main stream.

Will Bumblebee start off in his alt mode he ended Transformers in, or will he just show up as an upgraded model with the new hood scoop and lip spoiler?

Nevermore · 06-21-2008, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Primus

I loved "Alias" although there were too many loose ends at the finale, and I'm a huge fan of "Lost" as well.

Bob is not involved in Lost. According to a recent post over at the Don Murphy boards, he hasn't even watched the show yet beyond the initial few episodes, saving it all for the time when the show is over.

Turnpike · 06-21-2008, 11:55 AM

Hi Mr. Orci, great to have someone from the biz to spend some time, and talk to the fans! Wish more productions would follow suit.

Questions:

1. How difficult was it to approach and write a continuation/sequel to such a large, epic summer action flick? What aspect was the hardest? Trying to create something which would live up to fans' expectations must be a grueling (yet rewarding) task.

And finally:
2. Any general "words of advice" for aspiring film writers, when it comes to writing sequels?

Thank you for doing this Q&A, and good luck on the rest of the production!

Takara_destron · 06-21-2008, 12:02 PM

Hi Mr Orci, my question is;

Will we be getting newly named characters alongside new characters who have names which have always been part of Transformers? The more new characters the better as far as Im concerned.

Bob Orci · 06-21-2008, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tr4nce

I remember your post at the Don Murphy forums in which you said that sometime after the movie, you were driving in your car and suddenly saw Cullen walking somewhere on the sidewalk, and then you yelled 'Priiiiiiiiiiiiiiimee!!' as you drove by. So awesome. And yes, he should definitely have a cameo, preferably as the hologram driver of Prime! That would be such a well found Easter Egg.

However, I think you missed my question in the OP, being:

Mr. Orci, by going at the lenght of the script, is there any small indication at all about what the runtime of the sequel will be?

Also: I think you can answer this one safely. Is Ratchet coming back? We have seen movie set pics of every Autobot from the first movie, but not one of Ratchet. I mean, why would you lose him? He's the medic of the group, and I can imagine you would certainly need a doctor, knowing that the Decepticons are coming for revenge.

Going by the length of the script can be tricky because the action is longer in reality than on the page. We're trying to keep it to two hours, but I get a feeling it'll be about the same as movie 1.

Ratchet could be on assignment in Alpha Centauri. Who knows?

Bob Orci · 06-21-2008, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liege Prime

Hello, and welcome Mr. Orci!

I did have a couple quick questions, if you didn't mind.

First, I had a question about the differences with the novelization, mainly the fate of Barricade. This may have been answered somewhere or another but should the novel be taken as the truth, or the movie? I am generally in the opinion of what we saw on the screen is what matters. If the novel is not right, then was there any disputes or issues brought up with the publishers for having that relatively large inconsistancy?

Second, I was wondering if you were familiar with how the video game adaptation went with the story and what you though of it, AND if it was based on earlier versions of the script or if you had nothing to do with it at all? The game itself is widely considered rather lackluster, but near the end of the Autobot campaign the story unfolds a bit differently, and a lot of people seem to like the way it worked. If you aren't familiar with it, a quick recap is that Jazz gets killed by Brawl after fending off Starscream and Blackout. Then, Ironhide actually takes out Brawl. Finally, instead of the humans taking out Megatron, Prime actually does.

As for the novels and the games, both had to do work from early drafts of the script, and they did not have complete access to everything we were doing so you can't blame them for divergences.

Speaking of the novelization, a funny thing happened at botcon: some one came up to me and Alex and asked us how we went about turning the novelization into a screenplay? We told them it was the other way around.

Omegus Prime · 06-21-2008, 02:00 PM

Welcome to the mad house, Bob. They hand out the meds at 6pm daily (you'll develop the need for them here) and we're low on straight jackets so we're on a strict "self hug" policy for now.

Question 1. In the last movie Prime seemed fairly weak against Megatron, he took most of the beating and didn't even make the final blow. Is there an effort to make Prime look stronger this time around?

Question 2. From the glimpses we've had of the movie so far we can see Bumblebee's been upgraded, but glimpses of Optimus show the same truck as the last movie, as well as models of Starscream that are the same model jet. Will the returning cast receive new forms at some point? It would kinda suck to get the next set of movie toys and find them identical to the last batch.