Hands down the most fun movie of 2007, and easily the best movie ever adapted from a cartoon (although that’s not saying much) was Transformers. It was everything you could have hoped a live action adaptation of a beloved (and admittedly cheesy) 80’s cartoon show could be. The film is riddled with flaws, but succeeded in the areas it needed to the most, and thus delivered. Most importantly, it left a lot of film goers panting for more. And more is indeed coming.
My buddy Robert over at IESB recently sat down to interview one of the producers of Transformers, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and asked him about the status of Transformers 2. Here is some of that conversation:
IESB: Can you give us a quick update on Transformers 2. Is it still planned to start shooting in July of 08?
LDB: The second, June 2nd.
IESB: June 2nd?
LDB: Yep.
IESB: Is the story locked?
LDB: We’re no where because of the strike, we won’t know until we come back. We have a very fine outline and we know exactly where we want go with the movie but until this writers strike comes back, we’ll find out exactly where we are. Michael is completely on top of every detail. He’s designed a lot of great stuff already. He’s got a lot of great sequences imagined but you know, he needs some writers to work with before he’s ready to go, so I would say June 2nd is an unofficial start, it’s the target date we’d like to go for but, you know, we’ve got to get some writers to help us.
IESB: Now, comparing to Transformers 1, how much bigger is Transformers 2 going to be?
LDB: (laughs) You know, I’m gonna let Michael answer that question.
IESB: (laughs) Well, come on $700 million dollars…
LDB: I’ll say this much, I know that Michael wants to deliver a bigger experience for everybody.
So there you have it. I’ve got to believe that even two totally ass-centric groups like the leadership of the WGA and the AMPTP can get their act together by June. But hey… if I’ve learned anything in the last few years is to never underestimate the stupidity of some people.
i loved transformers
Correct me, if I’m wrong, but is there a potential strike of Screen Actors and Directors comming up in the summer? And I don’t see the WGA strike over by then…
Can’t wait to see how this film looks like!
I’m sure they will “resurrect” Megatron!
@ “Hands down the most fun movie of 2007″
grumble… i don’t know about that… grumble… grumble…
I have a question for the Transformicons cheerleading section. Where exactly are you hoping the franchise goes from here? What ideas from the first one do you hope are expanded and elaborated on?
@”So you never know, the sequel could totally pawn. *Shrugs*”
What could this new film possibly be except more of the same? What new exciting direction do you expect it too take off in?
I honestly never doubted that Bay & Co. WOULDN’T get TRANSFORMERS 2 ready for Summer 2009.
Asside from that recent “as-yet-unslotted” remark by Hollywood Reporter, everyone (both officially and privately) have talked about just…how…FAST Bay has pulled everything together to shoot this year.
And I say all this totally unbiased (i.e. absolutely fucking hated TRANSFORMERS!) So you never know, the sequel would totally pawn. *Shrugs*
takata, numbers do & can lie. best example being the pirates 3 n spidey 3 debacles. folks went in huge numbers cos many were expecting spidey 3 to be a step up from 2 which raised the bar (at the time) for comic based movies. much as i hate to say it, the same goes for the multitudes who enjoyed the 2nd pirates installment.
Jamie: i never said there was no humour in Transformers. just that Superbad delivered a lot more fun & BETTER laughs.
monty: i think what Bay should be saying to the striking writers is “forget the heart (a/k/a Spielberg sap) & go for asskicking magic”.
speaking of actual heart,the only one who made me give a shit about them in the entire movie was Bumblebee.
Morty,
did you forgot the chiuahua peing and bumblebee peing jokes?
OR the masturbation jokes?!wow those made roll out of the chair!
Indeed i thought was a funny movie BUT i guess not exactly on the same way john did.
Well since people liked a lot the first one(numbers dont lie)so bring on!
WHO knows maybe they improve on the next one!
I cant believe i just writed that!its tha Bayester and now completely unleashed!!
Sir Jig-A-Lot and monty
NO THERES WAS NO SENSE OF HUMOR
With a bigger budget(I’m guessing over 200 mil atleast), Transformers 2 will have more action(of the off center, shaky cam variety), more Transformers(newly made up ones using G1 names), so in that sense Transformers will be a umm “better” movie.
But as far as dialog, plot, and characterization, you can foget about any major improvements, especially now that they just added another writer to the mix in Ehren Kruger(of Blood and Chocolate, Ring two fame). Throw in a producer currently running G.I. Joe into the ground and a director whose main edict to the writers for the sequel was “remember the heart and the magic, remember the heart and the magic. It’s not about being bigger.”
Ha! where was this sense of humor in his Transformer movie?
agreed on the disagree,John. to each their own.
i’m in the same boat as Kristina: BETTER not bigger. one can do bigger until the friggin cows come home (Pirates3,Spidey3) but BETTER is the right option (Spider-Man 2). let’s all hope Bay doesn’t go the spiderpirates route.
Well i really thought this one wasn’t going to happen for 2009 but there it is. I’m afraid, for the concerned people above, Transformers 2 will certainly be ‘Bigger & Bayer’ than last time. But when you hand him giant robots and let him create his own sequences, it will be surely mean huge fun on screen.
One thing we can say for certain is that Optimus Prime will enter the film a lot sooner this time.
I’m glad that Transformers 2 is getting set, but I think we can agree that the story needs to be better, more action and more focus on the robots.
The thing I dont like here is that Bay seems to really be taking the reigns completely here.
I think what held Transformers back was that it had a little too much “Bay” to it, if that makes sense.
The sequel needs less “Bay” and more story or plot and certainly more dialogue with the Robots.
It seems to me like Bay is just thinking of a few big action sequences and telling writers to just fill in the gaps, rather than starting with a good story and building it up from there.
Im sure it will be fun no matter what, but I think it could be so much more.
I don’t really care about the sequel being bigger. I’m more concerned with the film being BETTER than the original. I liked it a lot, but the human characters were overabundant, and Megan Fox cannot act worth a spit. PLEASE give the Decepticons and Autobots more screentime. Now that they’ll have a bigger budget, they’ll have no excuse not to give them more screentime.
Hey Sir Jig-A-Lot
Not even close sir… not even close. Superbad was FUNNIER, but not even close the to fun level of Transformers. Oh well, agree to disagree. :)
oh come now,John. everyone knows that Superbad was the funner movie between it & Transformers. i can’t take away from the fx cos they were great. butt,Superbad was more fun on a pound by pound basis.
i liked transformers i thought it was cool but it was kinda said at the same time. out of all the robots i love buble be he was really cool.I wonder if theres goin to be a transformers3 now that would be cool.
well if bay sayd they wer going to be “more robots and more unique” and its going to be $700 million dollars more- then itll be better
do u think that by more unique he means hes gonna bring in Beast Wars? if so then itll be cool
i hope they put unicron tho hes lik the rawest transformer
and thye fucked up Brawl (the decepticon tank) by calling him “devastator”- now they cant use devastator
and can someonbe PLEASE answer this for me???
does barricade die? cuz after he fights and loses to bumblebee he apears in the freeway scene again were bonecrusher rolerblades- but, then he doesnt appear in the last fight in downtown LA. i wanna kno cuz hes always been my favorite transformer