Orci and Kurtzman explain why they are not doing Transformers 3

IGN interviewed Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman about their Scifi past and future works. They claim they didnt sign on for TF3 because of time constraints and a lack of idea, and talked about how no harm was meant by Skids and Mudflap's protrayal.

IGN: Xena, Transformers, Star Trek, Fringe and Beyond

I believe the Transformers questions are on the second page if you want to skip ahead to those.

Interesting read. But I find their reasons why they're not writing Transformers 3 to be valid. Sounds like they're really busy with other projects.

Whoops, too late for that!

Didn't they pretty much say that it took ALOT OF thinking to get into TF2 because they felt they only had enough for one story?

No surprise that they ain't coming back.

I'm way too drunk to find anything Transformers related in that article, but I will say:
They're a diplomatic pair of writers, good luck to them in future endeavors.

Cannot wait for the 3rd movie.

Well looks like they should give more time for the movie then. I mean new writers could f**k the movie.

Good luck on your new projects, Mr. Orci and Mr. Kurtzman!

Not particularly revealing.

I'm not a Xena or alias fan. (hell I'm certain I have never seen a second of alias)

I liked Star Trek. Cool Movie.

point is when these guys are talking about stuff other that TF my eyes glaze over... I don't care.

In my opinion, the writing from the first two movies was very thin, and at times, downright terrible. The bar of expectation has been lowered so far that whomever picks up the baton for pt.3 has nowhere to go but up.

That's what I'm afraid of. ROTF could've been a fine piece of work if they just spent some time polishing the script, but it feels rushed. (as it was)

And I'm not sure if this new guy can do it either. He's the one whose contribution was apparently the Optimus Prime/Jetfire combo. But that was the only thing that actually made me cringe out loud.

In a business that far too often only about the money you do have to admire people that are enough of an artist to say sorry we just have so much going on we can't give it the attention it deserves. Sure I haven't been too crazy about their Transformers work, but they did write some TV showed I really enjoyed and they have some movies in the works I'm really excited about.

I just wish they had won a few more fights in how the movies were going to shape up, but that's just the way it goes some times.

Shouldn't we take this as a blessing? I'm not saying these guys were bad--I enjoyed their first two stories. All I'm saying is: new blood, a new direction, a fresh start doesn't mean doom is nearing, but rather a thriller with expectations of topping the previous story. Some times it's hard topping your best, having help or someone new altogether solves these sorts of issues.

Transformed

Orci and Kurtzman should have known better than to trust Michael Bay portraying the Twins. Too late now.

I agree with the first bit. As for the second... unfortunately, the guy who's staying on for writing duties is allegedly the one who came up with stuff like wrecking ball testicles for Devastator.

Thank god. Rotf was one of the worst stories ever written.

Interesting read. They handled the franchise well. People need to understand they were under alot of pressure getting this movie written and so was Bay and Co. they wanted to get this movie finished and make it pleasing to the audience. That makes a good movie and a good director regardless if the movie is bad or not.

I found this comment that was interesting too.


If only the ones who made that claim in the first place were that intelligent, or had some sort of common sense.

well that is understandable. they almost didn't sign on for ROTF cause of time constraints. but that's ok. i hope they have success with their future films. right now is not a time to be pessimistic about the success of the third movie. we really don't know that much, so it isn't very fair to say if it will be good or bad. so, what we should do is go into it with an optimistic outlook. im pretty confidant that mr. bay and mr. Kruger can pull off something nice.

and in all honesty, i am really sick of all this B.S. about skids and mudflap. for example

Quote:
Wait, what if Skidz and Mudflap were real robots (as crazy as it sounds), then would they still be called racist? This is who they are, this is how they act, whats wrong with that? It'd be like talking to an asian born in the states and calling him racist for acting like an american.

The point is, the twins are characters, this is how they act. This is their character. Its not like they were making fun of anybody, they were just being themselves. Its not what they do, its why they do it. A comedian impersonating someone is racist because he's doing it to be racist. Sidz and Mudflap are just in-character, that's all.

my sentiments exactly. nuff said.

I didn't find them racist... I found them to be F***ing stupid looking.

I hope the next movie shows the Decepticons for who they really are, mean nasty and not easily taken down. They seem to be really cheesy, they brought down way too easily and its dissapointing. Well lets hope the next one rocks!!

Edit: Just saw the above post. Ehren did add some okay stuff! Jetfire got better personality than many other new TFs in the movie due to his age, the Twins were all I found funny in the movie, and Starscream's last line was his best in the movie, quite an enlightening line, too.

Oh lawdy lawdy, what are we going to do with you.

The voice actors said that the portrayal was THEIR idea while doing improve. Hell, Reno's black himself and he found nothing racist in what they were doing at the time. Only thing Bay did was approve of their improve.

So Orci and Kurtzman did Hercules, that explains a lot. I won't miss them on TF 3.

I loved both films, so I must say that they did really good. There are a few lines that weren't necessary (like Lennox saying "That's a good question" after Optimus dropped one of his epic lines), but above all, the movies were good. But, like a few have said, good luck to them in other work. Like another few have said, let's just see this as a "new" start, so let's just see what happens.

I'm officially no longer the only person to see the truth. I hate racism, and if the Twins were racist, they wouldn't be two of my favorite characters.

A tough call at this point since we don't really know how things will shape up. All we can do is project our personal feeling on how things might go. I'm a bit of pessimist but I'd be no more right than you as an optimist because at this point none of can really know for sure any which way things may go in the end product.

What's wrong with Optimus Prime combining? It's been going on for years, a classic Optimus Prime trope, and a great toyetic gimmick.

"Fans of Transformers" indeed. Even the most mild Transfan would not pass up writing TFs for "Aliens and Cowboys"

After two films that have grossed over $2 billion in ticket and dvd/bluray sales, I find it hard to believe they couldn't make time in their oh-so-busy schedule to write the third installment. Sounds to me like they were fired.

I find it interesting that they expected to be taken seriously after Hercules and Xena. I mean, I enjoyed them, but the physics kept me laughing AT the show while I enjoyed the cheese. They weren't shows you could enjoy if you did take them seriously. I do admit I did like the characters, tho, so they did good writing there.

On the twins...it occurs to me that if they didn't look like their heads were run over right after creation, then maybe it would have been more obvious they were trying to make fun of gangsta wannabes, instead of being seen as racist.

--Moony

Maybe they just got tired of coming up with ideas only to have the director ignore their ideas and input. Perhaps leaving was just a nice way of saying okay if you aren't going to listen to us then we can go do other things.

With all the work they have it's not like they can't almost pick the people they want to work with now so maybe they just like working with other directors better.

Funny, because Reno Wilson said in this article that he didn't realize that his character would be accused of being racist. And even Orci and Kurtzman said quite clearly that the Twins being racist just wasn't their fault; it was Bay's.

But hey, believe what you want to believe.

Very interesting, didn't know about their early careers, so cool. As for TF3, I may be in the minority here, but I like their work on Fringe and Star Trek, so I would have liked to see them help finish the trilogy. Good Luck to them.

I think you are right. After reading the articles and listening to their commentary, I think they wrote a character-driven script that Bay hi-jacked for more explosions.

You can hear their exasperation at certain points of the movie when they mention a poignant scene or line of dialog that Bay chopped out. It made me exasperated to hear them because I kept thinking how much more improved the movie could have been with just a bit of tweaking that they were mentioning. But we needed all that running and exploding during the final battle at the expense of plot and characters, didn't we?

I still think the Twins did not look racist. Gangster wanabees? Sure, now that was really annoying. Honestly, those two should never have been created...

(I still bought Skids tho, and plan to get the HA one too.)

Which is exactly what I meant in my post. If Reno thought what he and Kenny were doing during the improv. sessions was racist he probably wouldn't've done it. He was surprised by the fact that some people found it offensive.

Bay approved it, but it wasn't his idea.

I think people worldwide need to realize that there's QUITE a difference between "racist" and "hateful".

Seconded.

That's because they werent. The only racism that exists is the racism that the accusers are practicing themselves.

IMO some fresh writing involving less poop and testicles will be a good thing.

Yeah, it's probably more this. If you're not feeling appreciated and your work is getting messed about and you're catching the blame for the end results then of course you'd be thinking about doing something else next time, especially if you've got several other projects you can go work on or are being offered to you.
It would be kinda stupid not to.

how hard can it be to write the 3rd one:
EXPLOSION
Sam has a goofy look on his face
EXPLOSION
Optimus says something dickish
Megan Fox delivers her line with all the emotion of a pet rock, and jiggles her boobs
EXPLOSION
put a rainforest in the middle of Nevada
Robot Titties
EXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSION
Megan Fox runs from EXPLOSION add cgi boob jiggles
EXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONHUFFER???EXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSION
Bay's newest autobot Mexitron shoots stuff
EXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSIONEXPLOSION
~Fin

Problems with TF1:
Lack of robot fighting scenes
Story a bit overexagerated
Stupid ending
Blurry camera angles
Too much build up
Silly or non important charecters
Death of cool charecters

Problems with TF2:
Stupid robots
No emotionalisation
No charecterisation
Megan Fox (Do i need to say more?)
Stupid romance plot
The plot revolves around Sam
Doesnt cover mistakes from the last film
Potentially Racist robots
Decepticons with Testicles
Stupid plot
Bad camera angles
No chance for fan favourite robots to shine! (Soundwave, Starscream and Megatron)

How to make TF3 awesome:
Introduction (Yes bay you can have Optimus say it if you want )
New Charecters (They should survive atleast half the film!)
Autobots talks to Sam about something (Allow robots to interact)
Plot thickens
Megatron returns
Starscream uses the clone army to betray Megatron
Huge fight including car chase and aerial battles
Soundwave causes chaos bringing down most of a city
Bumblebee, Sam or Mikela die (Have them heroically save one or both of the others by sacrificing themselves)
Megatron kills Starscream
Sideswipe kills Soundwave
Optimus and Megatron fatally wound each other and both die.
Ironhide takes command of the Autobots
Bumblebee stays with Sam while the rest of the Autobots leave Earth
Autobots make a base on the moon

I agree with the first bit. As for the second... unfortunately, the guy who's staying on for writing duties is allegedly the one who came up with stuff like wrecking ball testicles for Devastator.

wrong again. in the 2nd disc you can watch bay come up with it by himself. he is seen talking about that idea.

I just need to add another thought...
For what it's worth - even if TF3 gets top-notch writers, Bay is still in the driver's seat, and has final say uber alles.

Now, that's not entirely true. I've kept up with a lot of the interviews regarding these characters, and the voice actors never just up and said, "Yeah, it was us, our fault." As far as I remember, there was a lot of buck-passing between the writers, Bay and the voice actors. I seem to remember the general gist of each interview being, "Well, it was [next person's] idea really, but, y'know, we improvised and we came up with these ideas, and we thought it was a good idea at the time, but we were really just following [next person's] initiative."

That's about right, except we still need a few black stereotypes here and there. BOOM! Instant Michael Bay flick.

Is it just me or in every movie topic the same two or three members manage to twist every sentence into "bay doesn't care and everybody is angry at him, also, devastator balls"

Every Movie topic seems to consist of the same ten or so people arguing

I've often referred to some movies as looking like "they filmed the first script." This time they actually did. They also describe turning in a few scenes at a time due to the time crunch. That is no way to write a film. I enjoyed the writing in the first film (and most of the writing in the second), but I'd rather see someone else write the film then for that to happen again.

Agreed. My favorite example of this is Mike Myers and the "Dieter" movie. He actually turned around and gave the studio back the money after the project started. (Too bad he didn't do the same during "The Love Guru." Seriously, who puts the payoff to a running gag at the beginning of the film?)