TF: AoE Producer on Franchise Future, Dinobot questions and Dark Optimus

deathzero23 · Jul 8, 2014

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXCTINCTION PRODUCER ON FRANCHISE FUTURE, DINOBOT QUESTIONS, AND DARK OPTIMUS
Transformers: Age of Exctinction Producer on Franchise Future, Dinobot Questions, and Dark Optimus - IGN

Smashs · Jul 8, 2014

For those of you who don't want to/can't go to IGN:

BY ROTH CORNET

Warning: Spoilers for Transformers: Age of Extinction follow...

Michael Bay's fourth Transformers film is into its second weekend and is expected to maintain its spot at the top of the box office. The film essentially redesigns the Transformers while introducing a new cast of human characters and creating room for the franchise to take a very different direction. We were able to speak with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about where he foresees the series going from here, as well as some questions that fans may have after having seen the film.

"Your Makers Want You Back":
Age of Extinction ushers in the idea that the Transformers are made, rather than born, and that their creators, as Lockdown says, "want them back." It also imagined that Earth had been terraformed by these mystery "creator" aliens, which birthed the Dinobots. When asked, di Bonaventura said that the decision to expand and/oe alter the mythology was an "organic" one.

"The truth is, it's not like we sit down and go, 'All right, let's think about how we can explore the mythology further,'" the producer said. "What was interesting about the Dinobots is that we talked about them for three movies. Every time, we'd debate it, and we couldn't find a good reason, other than that they were cool, to put 'em in, which for us wasn't enough. So the whole idea of the extinction and how to tie that all together, that's where it started creatively to get to the creators. Like, so, okay, if it happened back then, then who sent them? So it's this progression that occurs."

What's Up With the Dinobots & Terraforming?:
The idea that this terraforming takes place in this imagined world leaves the door open to several questions, such as: What does that mean in terms of human evolution? Did this version of the extinction event change the planet? Was it planet-wide? If so, why haven't more been found previously with and instead of dinosaur bones? Are there more Dinobots just hanging out beneath the surface of the earth? And so on...

Transformers in Space?

"We need to figure that out, to some degree," di Bonaventura said in response to our queries. "I bet you'll get a different answer from every one of us involved. Honestly, we haven't thought through some of those questions you're asking. Look, what I found really cool about it was the whole notion that that was the provocation of the extinction of the dinosaurs. To me, that was sort of the big idea, and that's pretty much what drove our decision initially. That discovery leads to some big problems in our present day. It offers an opportunity in the future to do something, for sure. It also offers an opportunity I guess to do something in space if you wanted to, because the notion of terraforming is you can do it in space."

The producer had spoken to us previously about possibly locating one of the Transformers films in space, saying that "it might be something we explore, for sure." Certainly, Age of Extinction's finale - in which Optimus charges into the celestial abyss proclaiming his intent to "come for" his hidden masters - seems to leave that door open.

Dark Optimus:
As to that, Optimus was a changed character in this film; one who, understandably, has a far more contentious relationship with the human race.

"You know, Optimus has been seriously betrayed, in a way by his own people in a sense, right?" di Bonaventura said of the character's state of mind. "Lockdown came down here after him. So I think it's a natural progression that he would take the gloves off a little bit. In this movie, he's seeing a lot of his friends killed, destroyed, and kind of in a mean-spirited way on top of it. There's no battlefield honor in their deaths."

Will Lockdown Return?:
For many, the standout character in the film is Lockdown. Some audiences responded to his design and nature even more than the standard franchise villain - Megatron.

"He's hostile towards anybody who gets in his way, and he's been given a task," the producer said of the character. "The task is to grab Optimus Prime. So as far as he's concerned, get rid of everybody and isolate. His antagonism...I don't think is personal in a certain way; it's just business, as they say in the mob movies. You know, he's a character that we don't know exactly who he's working for, but you get the sense that he's not comfortable not delivering for them. I think he's also very frustrated because he's clearly been at this for awhile, trying to track these guys down. So he's reached a point of exasperation I think, more than anything."

"I think one of the reasons he's such an effective villain actually is the way he walks," the producer added. "It's really cool. It's a very fluid, almost slinky kind of thing. It's more human, in a way, than robotic. It's not stiff. So I think it gives him a really menacing gate. Also, he has absolutely no sense of humor, and he is going to kill anything in his way. Megatron was vain, so in a way you could understand him more, his frustration. If you know the mythology, Megatron and Optimus were once essentially brothers in arms. So they have a personal issue going on. There's a human feeling to it. Lockdown doesn't have any human feelings. He's just cold."

The character was destroyed by the end of the film, of course, but so was Megatron and now he's Galvatron. When asked if it was possible that we may see the return of Lockdown in the future, di Bonaventura said that they hadn't really talked about it yet.

"You don't really know until you see it," the producer explained. "We learn how cool he's going to look later on. So at the point where we learned just how cool and crazy his introduction was, if nothing else -- that's just one of the great introductions. One of my favorite shots in the whole movie is when he comes walking out of that dark cloud of smoke, and the spaceship's behind him. You're just like, 'What the hell is going on!?' Then you go, 'Holy cow, what a great villain.' We haven't talked about whether he would come back or not. Megatron has come back in different iterations and has now gone forward, if you would, and evolved. We'll see."

Messing with the Mythology:
The idea of the "evolution" of the Transformers - in the form of the man-made versions - is another new notion introduced in this film; one that alters how the robots function and again, plays some of the mythology.

"The idea that we're messing with their genome is a very relevant concept for today," the producer said of the decision to bring in the human designed Transformers as well as the potentially world-altering "seed."

Adding, "I think fans are going to relate to the fact that one could do that. Now you're presented with the next generation, if you would, of what these things are capable of. Every time we have -- other than the first movie where we heard a lot of people originally, fearful that we were going to destroy their childhood -- when they eventually saw them, they loved them. Each time, we've moved them forward, and they've gotten cooler, I think. They're more complex, and the way they transform is different at times. I think they're going to embrace that idea."

"A 1980s Version on the Big Screen Would Be Laughable":
As to a fanbase that tends to be fairly invested in how the Transformers are depicted, di Bonaventura said that one of the trickiest aspects of the franchise is deciding how and when to play with the mythology and bring in new ideas and characters from previously existing Transformers properties.

"If you do it exactly the way it is, people will actually be disappointed," he said. "You can't do it the way their memory is. You can't do it the nostalgic way. I mean, can you imagine what these things would have looked like if we'd done the 1980s cartoon version of them on the big screen? They'd look laughable. You know, it's a big trick, but you're paying attention to them, for sure. The hard part is there are so many voices. The worst thing that can happen to any filmmaker is to begin to get back on their heels and go like, 'Wait, I don't know. What do they think? How do they think?' You've got to have a certain sense of your own confidence about it."

Franchise Success & Critical Response:
Given the astonishing historic box office draw of this franchise, Age of Extinction was all but guaranteed to succeed financially, particularly in worldwide sales.

"Yeah, it feels that way, but you never know," the producer - who was cautiously optimistic at the time of this interview - said. "It's the one thing I've learned after 25 years in the movie business: right about the time you put your chin out there, you get knocked, you know?"

However, the critical response to the films has often been...less than entirely favorable. When asked if the reviews impact Bay and the creative team, di Bonaventura replied, "Sure, yeah. We're human. [Laughs]. We're not Autobots -- we're not Lockdown, I should say. Yeah, no, for sure. It doesn't feel good to be -- you know, we all put our best effort in, and sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we don't. But I've never worked on a film where everybody wasn't giving it their all. So what you try to do is you try to listen to a few voices rather than all the voices. With all the voices, how do you make sense of that -- in anything? It's like a political forum. How do you make any sense of any political decision, really? So from our point of view, we're lucky in working with Hasbro. There's a lot of real hardcore fans who work at Hasbro. So we have people who are intimate with the process to a certain degree, who are also fanboys at heart. So they're our best measure, because they're listening to even more voices. So we can all listen to them, and we all have picked two or three people in our lives that we trust, their reaction to it. A lot of people who work on the movie have grown up with it, so then you have that input too."

More Transformers to Come:
As to which characters we'll be seeing in the future, the producer said that they've "talked about almost every one." Adding that the sheer number of characters available can become overwhelming for them as creators as well as for the audience. "We kind of reached a point where we couldn't add any more this time," he said. "Each time, we'll think about another group."
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Natohk · Jul 8, 2014

Nice interview.

PrimeTime85 · Jul 8, 2014

What he said about lockdown is the truth. He didn't move like a robot he had swag and moved with a purpose. Another thing I wish they would think ahead when doin movies so folks will STFU about plot holes.

Archer · Jul 8, 2014

The next movie really explaining the Dinobots' origin and giving them some dialogue even if it is on cybertronian or caveman language would be great.

Dragonzzilla · Jul 8, 2014

So what they're saying is that Lockdown needed a distinct way of walking.

Scorpio · Jul 8, 2014

"There's no battlefield honor in their deaths."
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Their has been no battlefield honor in their deaths since TF1. Jazz was ripped apart, Sentinel was executed begging for mercy, Que was executed begging for mercy, Megatron was killed asking for a truce, Ironhide was murdered just because.

Optimus having a massive change of character to the point where he is shouting 'I'll kill you all' is just badly handled. Their is no visible progression for him - he just becomes more violent because they believe he should be. If you wanted to do this right you should have simply given us a look at what made him snap - actually see the first time the humans betrayed him.

"You can't do it the way their memory is. You can't do it the nostalgic way. I mean, can you imagine what these things would have looked like if we'd done the 1980s cartoon version of them on the big screen? They'd look laughable. You know, it's a big trick, but you're paying attention to them, for sure
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What is the point in adapting a Transformers series to film if you are not doing it based off the prior media? That's just dumb. The 1980's versions could and have worked on big screen - in truth ROTF and DOTM are both heavily based around plots from the original series. You are contradicting yourself Lorenzo.

As to which characters we'll be seeing in the future, the producer said that they've "talked about almost every one." Adding that the sheer number of characters available can become overwhelming for them as creators as well as for the audience. "We kind of reached a point where we couldn't add any more this time," he said. "Each time, we'll think about another group."
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This just emphasises the biggest problem with this series - each time they keep stating that the Transformers numbers are dwindling or that they are facing extinction due to the loss of Cybertron - yet every movie we see more and more Autobots and more and more Decepticons.

So at some point you'll look back and think... where was Hound, Drift and Crosshairs during the events of ROTF? When you keep adding or changing the cast and don't explain where they came from or why they didn't arrive sooner then it creates errors and issues.

One of my favorite shots in the whole movie is when he comes walking out of that dark cloud of smoke, and the spaceship's behind him. You're just like, 'What the hell is going on!?' Then you go, 'Holy cow, what a great villain.' We haven't talked about whether he would come back or not. Megatron has come back in different iterations and has now gone forward, if you would, and evolved. We'll see."
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Actually their was a scene prior to this explaining 'what the hell is going on' or do you forget your own movie and the Ratchet scene? As for bringing back Lockdown - no, you messed him up and killed him off in a pathetic and easy way. You cant make him threatening when he died so damn easily. The same with Megatron/Galvatron - Galvatron has yet to do anything important or threatening. You had a good villain and you lost him, well done.

[/QUOTE]"I bet you'll get a different answer from every one of us involved. Honestly, we haven't thought through some of those questions you're asking."[/QUOTE]

Thanks for clarifying that none of you have any idea about future movies and are making shit up as you go along - if you don't know whether a movie in space is possible then why did you end the movie with your main character going into space? That's just really stupid because unless that character is either in space or finds the creators in TF5 then you've let your audience down.

You cant expand your universe one minute and then keep is so Earth-centred the next - it doesn't work that way.

Galvatron II · Jul 8, 2014

I'm surprised someone on the production team of the Transformers movies knows what "Battlefield honor" is. Their fans certainly don't...

Hanzkaz · Jul 8, 2014

the decision to expand and/oe alter the mythology was an "organic" one.
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"The truth is, it's not like we sit down and go, 'All right, let's think about how we can explore the mythology further,'"
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"I bet you'll get a different answer from every one of us involved. Honestly, we haven't thought through some of those questions you're asking.
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Scorpio's quote below kind of sums up what I got from this interview

Thanks for clarifying that none of you have any idea about future movies and are making **** up as you go along
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Also:

There's a lot of real hardcore fans who work at Hasbro. So we have people who are intimate with the process to a certain degree, who are also fanboys at heart. So they're our best measure, because they're listening to even more voices. So we can all listen to them, and we all have picked two or three people in our lives that we trust, their reaction to it.
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I wish some of those 'fanboys' were around to point out that Brawl was not named Devastator back during the first movie (that was a not a good sign to begin with), and also that Megatron does not willingly serve anyone, not even Unicron. I'm also wondering how they chose which people to trust. Was it just those who agreed with them?

As to which characters we'll be seeing in the future, the producer said that they've "talked about almost every one." Adding that the sheer number of characters available can become overwhelming for them as creators as well as for the audience.
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I don't mind characters. We could do with more of those. We mostly get random, often anonymous robots who come out of nowhere, die or disappear without explanation. And then there's the humans....

Actually, I suspect part of the problem was having to deal with characters in the first place.

BarricadeLives · Jul 8, 2014

wow very candid...enjoyed this very much, thank you.

brought up good points, like many on here, about optimus prime getting betrayed not only by megatron way back when but then again by sentinel and again by the humans so i think his character arc has been 1 of the more impressive things about this series..his military tactics aside, of course.

also, sean connery for unicron

here's what i dont get...they can make armageddon way back in like 1997 pretty much all in space & on an asteroid..yet today we can't film movies in space? im confused. Soundwave? Is that you?

Chopperface · Jul 8, 2014

I have nothing but respect for the production crew. It nearly killed me to make a fifteen minute movie for a media class. There's just so much to worry about. Make-up, extras, sound, sound design, and for this movie, a giant CGI mechanical Spinosaurus. I agree that almost everyone gave it 110% to make this movie - except a large number of the human cast, and Kruger.

It is kinda sad that they haven't even tried to answer some of the questions themselves. Ridley Scott presumably holds a lot of the big questions for Prometheus in his head and we know he'll answer them, and is planning to. Here, it's not encouraging that they're just doing things without a reason.

And Scorpio, he's moreso referring to how they didn't want to do a straight copy paste of G1 onto the big screen. What point would there be in adapting a story if they had nothing new to contribute? Prime suffered from this; it very rarely felt original and more like a beating of a dead horse with it's endless relics and G1 quotes. Or the new Avengers show is a shitty copy of the movie. The entire plot is basically the movie. Only one thing feels original and that is the small arc about it's villains. Otherwise, it sucks. I would not pay to see G1 directly reproduced in live action on the big screen. We got an adaptation, and I love the adaptation we've gotten for all it's flaws.

Dragonzzilla · Jul 8, 2014

Chopperface said: ↑

I have nothing but respect for the production crew. It nearly killed me to make a fifteen minute movie for a media class. There's just so much to worry about. Make-up, extras, sound, sound design, and for this movie, a giant CGI mechanical Spinosaurus. I agree that almost everyone gave it 110% to make this movie - except a large number of the human cast, and Kruger.
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Ditto. I've had to bust my chops just to make a video of segmented recordings. I even wanted to parody a certain trailer, but there was way too much work involved; I had to abandon it for a smaller project. Really, the reason most people hate the movies is because writing isn't a priority and some of the acting if off... but that's about it. A majority of the Transformer film development team is gold.

Moy · Jul 8, 2014

I don't want Drift or Crosshairs in tbe next one, they just don't interest me at all. It's funny because to me it seemed Bumblebee felt the same way.

Autovolt 127 · Jul 8, 2014

That was a great interview.

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TF: AoE Producer on Franchise Future, Dinobot questions and Dark Optimus

deathzero23 Well-Known Member

Smashs Internet: Pure Truth Moderator

Natohk Quintesson

PrimeTime85 Well-Known Member

Archer Well-Known Member

Dragonzzilla Well-Known Member

Scorpio Well-Known Member

Galvatron II I can type whatever here?

Hanzkaz Well-Known Member

BarricadeLives i'm you! i'm your shadow!

Chopperface Chadwick Forever

Dragonzzilla Well-Known Member

Moy Constructicons!

Autovolt 127 Get In The Titan, Prime!

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TF: AoE Producer on Franchise Future, Dinobot questions and Dark Optimus

deathzero23 Well-Known Member

Smashs Internet: Pure Truth Moderator

Natohk Quintesson

PrimeTime85 Well-Known Member

Archer Well-Known Member

Dragonzzilla Well-Known Member

Scorpio Well-Known Member

Galvatron II I can type whatever here?

Hanzkaz Well-Known Member

BarricadeLives i'm you! i'm your shadow!

Chopperface Chadwick Forever

Dragonzzilla Well-Known Member

Moy Constructicons!

Autovolt 127 Get In The Titan, Prime!

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