Roberto Orci - Leonard Nimoy, Frank Welker in the running for the role of voicing The Fallen

Most interesting!

And here we are yet again, the film is due out in 4 months and they haven't even recorded the Transformers lines yet. more thrown together" Boy sniffing" dialogue to come.

Nimoy as the Fallen and Welker for Soundwave, plz.

EDIT: Where was this posted?

I am also glad they did not go with Galvatron. I am surprise about Welker in the running to voicing The Fallen. I thought he was going to do just Soundwave.

As long as Frank Welker gets a role, I don't care who he voices lol. Leonard Nimoy would be awesome though, I loved him in Transformers the Movie as Galvatron (but again, as long as he doesn't take a role away from Welker!)

Hell yes.

bit of irony they are both up for same role no?

Well, it's unlikely Welker won't play Soundwave.

Nimoy and Bay are cousins, that's a funny coincidence. Quite frankly I'm glad they're avoiding the whole Reborn Megatron is Galvatron angle, that got quite old with the AEC trilogy.

As for all the lines not being recorded with a little over three months to go, I'm not worried, it gives Orci and company more time to tweak them before they're recorded. Who knows the Fallen may be the last character they're looking to cast?

Bay said it's very hard to cast the actors without seeing the robots fully realised. We know for sure the actors from the previous film have recorded their lines, so for the new characters it'll be like last time, where they had to sync their voices to completed footage.

Re-christening Megatron as Galvatron is extremely played out so I'm glad they opted against it.

I'm really hoping for Nimoy. Even if it takes a role from Welker, not like Welker has no jobs, he's the most hired VA in Hollywood.

Bay spoke of his relationship with Leonard Nimoy on the DVD commentary during the scene where the Autobots are at Griffith Observatory.

I would LOVE IT if Leonard Nimoy voices the Fallen, or hell, anybody. Dude's deep voice as Galvatron was just cool.

I seriously hope to have Nimoy as the Fallen, Welker as Soundwave

Yea! No Galvatron... I have to admit that the Megatron/Galvatron thing has been overdone.

"Movie 1 was the hardest thing they have ever worked on. Period. Nobody could imagine what it was, everyone thought it was just a silly cartoon or a toy commercial, the studio wasn't sure if the robots should talk, we had to come up with a story that would attract someone like Bay, and we had budgetary constraints that made it necessary to generate a significant human story which was counterintuitive to some Transfans. By the second movie, the paradigm of the franchise was clear."

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That was the bit that hit me the hardest, because it's honest and true.
The people that made these movies didn't know transformers, didn't understand the concept, had no relation to the history or mythos.
They just didn't care about the source matierial.
(outside of making a blockbuster movie which is their job)

If it weren't for the few people involved that knew and cared enough to scream bloody murder at the sight of things to come I honestly beleive that the movie would have been a major flop.

My fear is this time around, Bay and crew know they have a success to play off of. They have once again generally ignored the fan base, and I think it will hurt them this time, at least with the core and older fan base.

A lot of the younger guys (& gals) love the new move, but it's so far from anything else before it's leaving us scratching our heads or being forced to accept the "new way".

It's not bad, just really different from anything before. I for one am still adjusting to the movie asthetic. Some of it I like and some I don't.

That quote shows me that one thing has remained the same, it's all about making money and it always has been.
Major movie pushes the sales of the toys = $
Design considerations in toys dropped for profit over quality = $

I know some of the movie figures don't translate to toys very well, but some of them are just poorly designed figures and that may be to keep them in certain price points.

Nimoy ftw.

This.... is so awsome (national Shatner day, that's why I'm talking like this)

I'd love Nimoy as The Fallen and Welker as Soundwave.
Unfortunatly, I doubt it even matters.
Let us be realistic.
I bet both characters only get about three words of dialog between the both of em.

I hope Nimoy gets the Fallen part and they let Welker play Soundwave. I think that would work best IMO.

Also, I'm glad they stayed with Megatron for the name. Have Galvatron be a separate character sometime down the line.

I thought Nimoy wasn't proud of his Galvatron from the '86 movie. Pretty much doesn't acknowledge it. Why would he want to come back to Transformers?

I thought good old frank welker was taking the part of soundwave????

has anyone ever thought about may be nimoy being the voice for jetfire?

Most people involved with Transformers post-G1 started out not knowing anything about Transformers or even caring very much for the subject. Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio certainly didn't, but they eventually spearheaded what is commonly considered to be the best Transformers series ever made. It's rare that you get a somebody officially involved in Transformers for the first time (who was not plucked straight out from the fandom) who also happens to be a long-time fan, such as Derrick J. Wyatt.

The fact that the movie production are reintroducing obscure concepts such as Pretenders, recent concepts such as Optimus Prime's combined modes and are tying ROTF into the larger Transformers multiverse by including the Fallen as part of the plot shows there is some consideration for fans here.

Who is "us"? I love the movie continuity, and I've been around a while. New incarnations continuities of Transformers are created every few years. I don't see what the big deal is given it's been going on for a long time. Your G1 (or whatever your grew up with) is still alive and has not been replaced or rendered irrelevant just because a new series has been created.

What, and previous Transformers fiction were done entirely for artistic reasons? Transformers fiction have always been a means to pimp Transformers toys to kids or to simply promote the brand. Transformers has always been about making money and (hopefully) making kids happy at the same time.

Poor design is entirely subjective. Plastic weight/budgeting determines the price point of toys.

Welker can have Soundwave. I want Nimoy as the Fallen!

Why would "fan outcry" push Welker into the role of the Fallen? I thought we were pretty clear that if he cannot be Megatron (personally, I prefer to have Weaving back, at least for continuity's sake), we wanted Welker for *Soundwave*.

Count me, by the way, among those who favor Nimoy for the Fallen.

quite interesting! and its also good, cause if welker is in the run for voicing the fallen, its quite possible he may voice soundwave as well.

and btw, who is leonard nimoy?

we always do our recording right at the very last minute, recording is a pain to organise and is best done as a single session, you would want to minimise the chance of having to go back and re-record stuff as the result of edits

leonard nimoy is spock from star trek, he also voiced galvatron in the 86 movie. also orci's reply is a bit confusingly worded, it is the other way around, he is in the running for soundwave, so it is now possible that he may voice the fallen aswell.

orci said that welker was in the running as the result of fan outcry. there was never any outcry over geting welker to voice the fallen, it was over soundwave.

so, due to fan outcry [over soundwave] welker is now [possibly going to be working on the movie, so could also now be] in the running for the fallen.

I think what you meant to say is the studio execs, not the people who made the film, if you were spending years crafting something then you would care very much about the source material.

As for the studio, as you quite rightly pointed out it is their job to ensure that their business is profitable and not at all to be into any mythos or anything, and they are correct to have concerns about the idea of investing millions of their money into a movie based on toys of talking robots that change into cars.

This is how pitching works, you have to have shown that you ahve done your research and can justify all that you want to do. This is why you get good films, imagine if they just said yes to any stupid idea that was pitched to them. Just imagine Dragon's Den, that should give you the idea.

This is no different to any other commercial movie, the only ones that don't work like that are small independant films which would never have the budget to be able to make something like transformers.

Hmmm, I wonder if Welker would voice the Fallen in a version of his Megatron voice? You know, since the fallen is ancient and all.

Leonard Nimoy, however, would be awesome. His Galvatron voice is one of my all time favorite villians.

Normally I'm none too happy with what we have to give up just so the dumbest person who buys a ticket will get it. Not just a Transformers complaint there I hate how in general movies get dumbed down each year because heaven forbid anyone should have to turn their brain on or think at some point in two hours of entertainment.

But hey if we don't have to deal with Megatron becomes Galvatron yet again then Joe Average who can't get anything actually did something positive for us this time.

Cool news on the voice actor front, but I'm sort of in the crowd that's worried that the robots will not have much to say and it's not going to matter who's doing the voices if they don't have cool things to say.

IMDB.com him.

He was Galvatron in the 1986 movie and Spock the Star Trek TOS.

Awesome! Just another reason why this movie is going to be so good.

leanord nimoy? he has the most annoying voice ever -=/

it could happen, since he already played Galvatron in the 80's movie.

Please, please Welker as Soundwave and to boot, Nimoy as the Fallen. Really thought Nimoy's performance as Galvatron in the 86' movie was iconic (not the whiny/nasally cartoon version).

Leonard Nimoy is a craggy old man, his voice would be perfect for The Fallen. Welker is still perfect for Soundwave, but I think that Liam Neeson should voice Jetfire...

No it's really gonna be someone who is old and African American, like Morgan Freeman or Mr. T to voice Jetfire. Hell they killed the token.. I mean Jazz off in the first movie, they gotta have a replacement Bro-Bot in the sequel, right?

Exactly this!

That's exactly what I said.

You did not clarify anything for me. I understood all of that. Let me clarify what I said: just because we cry out that we want Welker for either Megatron or Soundwave, it does not follow that we want him for the Fallen or anyone else, for that matter.

Well, you know every family has that oddball you hope doesn't show up and spoil the reunion.... We now know who Nimoy's blacksheep is.

no... i can't imagine nimoy saying "get off my lawn!"

actually, i like both galvatron's voices... i think the whinny insane voice fits better for the "post" unicron controlled galvatron, personally.

I'd love to hear Mr. Freeman in Transformers--he's got a great voice. I wouldn't mind hearing James Earl Jones either for that matter.

Moving back to topic, I hope both get a role, Mr. Nimoy and Mr. Welker.

Mr. Welker and Mr. Cullen did a great job selling the whole Transformer line to we fans--we remember their names for goodness sakes! I still think its unfortunate that he (Mr. Welker) wasn't given the job to voice Megatron, but giving him a role (hopefully a permanent one) will make me and many others happy. ...something tells me the Fallen isn't going to be around after this movie, so whoever gets him, enjoy it while you can. I'm sure the Fallen will sound great

Transformed

Liam Neeson isn't going to be in the mood to do voicework, his wife just died for christ's sake! I thought someone like Ian McKellen would be great for Jetfire. A cultured, older knight of the realm.

Oh, and no, they don't have to pander to the politically correct crowd. I don't HAVE to have a token black bot, I'd rather the constructicons NOT sound like union workers, and besides, with the amount of digital manipulation done on the voices, it really doesn't matter who they pick for the voice, especially Jetfire, since he really doesn't have an iconic voice. Bland guy in G1, and fake Aussie in Energon.

No, that would belong to Carrot Top, the 'comedian'.

Same reason he did Spock all these years, though deep inside he hated Spock for decades (might still): 1) Paramount offers tons of cash 2) Paramount makes multi film contracts with all it's actors, and this might satisfy that contract.

Besides, Hugo Weaving did Megatron in the first TF movie, and he still hasn't seen the movie (as of Dec 2008), according to an interview he did with a magazine!

In G1, it worked, merely because Megatron was literally reformatted into an entirely new being with a new mission. Galvatron might still have some memory of being Megatron, but he didn't act nor think like Megatron. It's kinda like taking your leftover chicken breast from dinner, chopping it up the next night for fajitas... sure, it's still chicken, but when you add the peppers, salsa, and tortilla, it's totally different.

In all subsequent Megatron to Galvatron conversions (RID, AEC, etc) All you got was a color change, and not a substantial physical change. In Revenge of the Sith...er... Fallen, Megatron really doesn't change at all, other than his alt-mode and his BFG-9000 Deluxe Can-opener arm. No real reason to rename him.

Both good choices for the Fallen's voice IMO, hope one of them gets the role.

Leonard Nimoy's voice, the gravely nature of it, suits the design of The Fallen to a tee. Welker, as much as I love the man, needs to Soundwave.

Leonard Nimoy would be perfect for the Fallen. He's got that calm, evil "persuading" tone that fits in with the Fallen's persona (especially since he supposedly turned Megatron evil).

Welker for Soundwave. More power to him if he gets a chance to go for multiple roles.

In the studio's defense. Here's the concessions that has been made to the fans in this movie.

1) Soundwave

2) Ravage

3) Constructicons/Devastator

4) Sideswipe

5) The Fallen

6) Jetfire

7) Welker

8) Nimoy

If they had no regard for the source material these characters wouldn't of been included.

Yeah, Bay & Co. must have agonized for weeks over who would portray Starscream, Barricade, Brawl, Scorponok, Frenzy, Blackout, Jazz, and Bumblebee in the first movie. They must have had a combined 6-8 sentences total! Thank goodness they waited until the designs were fully completed. That could have been a voice acting disaster.

I guess it's a nice fan-wank that they're considering Nimoy and Welker. But honestly, there's gonna be like 40+ different robots in this sequel, right? There ain't gonna be a lot of talking, let alone meaningful dialogue. Ultimately, for the most part, it doesn't really matter who voices the robots--with a possible exception for Prime, since most people seem to associate him with Peter Cullen's voice.

At any rate, it's cool they're looking at some past Transformers voices. Hopefully their talents aren't wasted.

I was really hoping they'd get Brian Blessed for The Fallen.