Akiva Goldsman Talks Transformers Writers' Room and the Human Element
Wednesday, October 28th, 2015 9:07PM CDT
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IGN Movies: I wanted to ask about Transformers and what the writers' room process has been like -- because obviously that's commonplace for television, but not so much for movies. How has it been working with TV heavy-hitters like Steven DeKnight and Robert Kirkman on this franchise?
Akiva Goldsman: The room was honestly as delightful an experience as I've had. I think that we were just lucky enough to have a lot of good folks, all of whom were very generous. You know, I lurked around Fringe, and I learned a lot there. When you have a bunch of people who you respect, who are smart and talented, all trying to help each other figure stuff out, it's good whether you're all in a car heading across country for a road trip or a marriage and a family or a writers' room.
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Posted by Deadput on October 28th, 2015 @ 10:07pm CDT
It only works in the comics due to the fact they are not as big as movies or tv shows.
Posted by Sabrblade on October 28th, 2015 @ 10:07pm CDT
Posted by Deadput on October 28th, 2015 @ 10:36pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:Just gonna say that humans in Transformers isn't a problem. It's how they are used and portrayed that makes them good or bad.
Exactly
There are good characters, there are bad characters...
Then there's Kicker.
Posted by Sabrblade on October 28th, 2015 @ 10:41pm CDT
If nothing else, he was at least competent (and the only human to ever personally fight against Galvatron one-on-one in combat, and live).mirageandjazz1197 wrote:Then there's Kicker.
Thankfully, he wasn't bad in the Energon comics by Dreamwave. Actually got a couple of cool moments in there.
Posted by Fires_Of_Inferno on October 29th, 2015 @ 12:27am CDT
Goldsman: Yeah, the prequel. It takes place before Optimus and Megatron ever come to Earth."
Wait... what does THAT mean?
Posted by Windsweeper on October 29th, 2015 @ 3:29am CDT
Posted by Stuartmaximus on October 29th, 2015 @ 7:12am CDT
Posted by SlyTF1 on October 29th, 2015 @ 10:39am CDT
Windsweeper wrote:After Batman and Robin Akiva Goldsman shouldn't be allowed near any movie production
He's written some good movies after that. One shit movie doesn't mean he'd destined to write shit movies the rest of his career.
Posted by o.supreme on October 29th, 2015 @ 10:42am CDT
mirageandjazz1197 wrote:No matter what anyone in the fandom says in the movies and tv shows humans will always be necessary. It only works in the comics due to the fact they are not as big as movies or tv shows.
I have to respectfully disagree. The 1986 animated film is absolutely amazing, and human involvement was minimal, and could have easily been removed. I think it is budget restraints that require human involvement. To render 120 minuets of purely alien worlds and dozens of cinema level CG characters would push the budget to an insanely high amount. Remember we are not talking Pixar. We are talking ILM & other animation houses. Creating CG good enough to interact with the "real world" (I realize sometimes they fall short), still is way more complicated than creating an animated film within its own self contained animated world. I just hope that someday technology progresses to the point that you could have an entirely self-contained cinema level Transformers movie with all CG characters. True it would not work for most films, because well... most films require humans (Star Wars, Star Trek, MCU etc...) but Transformers does not.
Posted by Sabrblade on October 29th, 2015 @ 11:52am CDT
No. No, it really isn't.o.supreme wrote:mirageandjazz1197 wrote:No matter what anyone in the fandom says in the movies and tv shows humans will always be necessary. It only works in the comics due to the fact they are not as big as movies or tv shows.
I have to respectfully disagree. The 1986 animated film is absolutely amazing,
Posted by o.supreme on October 29th, 2015 @ 12:03pm CDT
Sabrblade wrote:No. No, it really isn't.
Let's just agree to disagree.
Posted by Rodimus Prime on October 29th, 2015 @ 2:14pm CDT
That's a matter of opinion, isn't it? Personally, if I had to choose between TF:TM and any of Bay's movies to watch, I'd pick the animated movie. DoTM might make me hesitate for a second (the best of Bay's work), but I'd go with TF:TM over live action. And no, it's not nostalgia talking. Just simply an enjoyment of good entertainment.No. No, it really isn't.I have to respectfully disagree. The 1986 animated film is absolutely amazing,
Posted by Sabrblade on October 29th, 2015 @ 2:24pm CDT
That's a comparison of the 1986 movie vs. the live action movies, which is a different subject from the 1986 movie being "absolutely amazing" or not.Rodimus Prime wrote:That's a matter of opinion, isn't it? Personally, if I had to choose between TF:TM and any of Bay's movies to watch, I'd pick the animated movie. DoTM might make me hesitate for a second (the best of Bay's work), but I'd go with TF:TM over live action. And no, it's not nostalgia talking. Just simply an enjoyment of good entertainment.No. No, it really isn't.I have to respectfully disagree. The 1986 animated film is absolutely amazing,
Posted by SlyTF1 on October 29th, 2015 @ 2:25pm CDT
o.supreme wrote:mirageandjazz1197 wrote:No matter what anyone in the fandom says in the movies and tv shows humans will always be necessary. It only works in the comics due to the fact they are not as big as movies or tv shows.
I have to respectfully disagree. The 1986 animated film is absolutely amazing, and human involvement was minimal, and could have easily been removed. I think it is budget restraints that require human involvement. To render 120 minuets of purely alien worlds and dozens of cinema level CG characters would push the budget to an insanely high amount. Remember we are not talking Pixar. We are talking ILM & other animation houses. Creating CG good enough to interact with the "real world" (I realize sometimes they fall short), still is way more complicated than creating an animated film within its own self contained animated world. I just hope that someday technology progresses to the point that you could have an entirely self-contained cinema level Transformers movie with all CG characters. True it would not work for most films, because well... most films require humans (Star Wars, Star Trek, MCU etc...) but Transformers does not.
Um, what do you think this Cybertron prequel is going to be?
Posted by o.supreme on October 29th, 2015 @ 2:41pm CDT
SlyTF1 wrote:Um, what do you think this Cybertron prequel is going to be?
I *think* it is going to be something fully animated on the level of PIXAR, in terms of animation quality, not in terms maturity. Like I said, there's a difference between what ILM and others do to create CG characters realistic enough to blend in real world environments, and "cartoon" CG animated films. To my knowledge, there has never been a fully animated film with CG imagery intended to blend in with real world environments, without having said real world interaction.
It has the potential to be the best TF film ever, but seeing as how it takes pace in the established Live-Action universe, I am skeptical. What I was originally responding to was what I believe is a false assertion that a TF movie simply cannot be made, or made well, *without* any human characters.
Posted by Sabrblade on October 29th, 2015 @ 3:06pm CDT
Dinosaur - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_(film)o.supreme wrote:To my knowledge, there has never been a fully animated film with CG imagery intended to blend in with real world environments, without having said real world interaction.
Posted by o.supreme on October 29th, 2015 @ 3:14pm CDT
real lemur
judges- nope not "real world" - Next.
Posted by Sabrblade on October 29th, 2015 @ 3:18pm CDT
Every character in that movie was CGI while the environments were filmed on location. That's what my point was.
Posted by o.supreme on October 29th, 2015 @ 3:21pm CDT
Posted by Sabrblade on October 29th, 2015 @ 3:25pm CDT
Oh, you meant a fully CGI movie with CGI so good that it looks real and not CGI? I see.o.supreme wrote:and that is not what I am describing. If the environments were "on location", then they were real, NOT "real life quality" CG. It will be kind of hard to go on location to an alien world.
Well, I know another film that was close to that, but not quite there only because it ended up having two scenes in live action while the rest was realistic CGI: The LEGO Movie.
Posted by Va'al on November 21st, 2015 @ 3:56am CST
After their Akiva Goldsman-led Writers Room experiment led to at least three movie ideas to extend Transformers, Hasbro and Paramount have set Goldsman to supervise a Writers Room for their G.I. Joe movie series. And they will go the same route with Goldsman to draft ideas for the Hasbro property Micronauts, with Goldsman supervising that as well.
This change of duties means Goldsman will supervise but won’t write the next Transformers installment. Paramount now is negotiating with Writers Room participants Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man) and Black Hawk Down scribe Ken Nolan to write the script together. That course change was cemented by Paramount, Hasbro, Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Don Murphy.
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on November 21st, 2015 @ 6:04am CST
Posted by griftimus prime on November 21st, 2015 @ 8:35am CST
Posted by Sabrblade on November 21st, 2015 @ 10:32am CST
Posted by Deadput on November 21st, 2015 @ 8:45pm CST
griftimus prime wrote:lol. all of this talk about a super awesome writing team and making ten sequels or whatever then people drop out.
Your saying this like anyone dropped out.
If you actually stop being snarky and read the post Goldsman is just trading places with some better writers while he helps with Gi Joe.
Seriously it's good someone better then him is writing 5.
Posted by OptimalOptimus2 on November 25th, 2015 @ 2:13pm CST
Posted by Va'al on February 13th, 2016 @ 1:40pm CST
We are reaching out today to share some exciting Transformers movie news from Hasbro’s Allspark Pictures and Paramount. At Hasbro’s Analyst Presentation this morning during Toy Fair, Hasbro Chairman, President and CEO Brian Goldner announced new details about the next three films in the multi-billion dollar global franchise.
In partnership with Paramount, the writers’ room assembled by Hasbro’s Allspark pictures has created several exciting new Transformers stories and is beginning development on the next three theatrical films.
· In 2017, Michael Bay will direct the next chapter of the Transformers films, with Mark Wahlberg returning to star. That film is slated for release on June 23.
· On June 8, 2018, a new film is being developed which will tell the never before heard story of Bumblebee, one of the most beloved characters from Hasbro’s Transformers universe.
· A third new film will continue the story of Hasbro’s iconic franchise which is scheduled for release on June 28, 2019.
Posted by Evil Eye on February 13th, 2016 @ 1:49pm CST
A BUMBLEBEE movie.
A movie. About Bumblebee.
I'm not sure whether to laugh or scream. Or both.
Posted by griftimus prime on February 13th, 2016 @ 2:10pm CST
Posted by Deathsaurus1 on February 13th, 2016 @ 2:18pm CST
Posted by Stuartmaximus on February 13th, 2016 @ 2:36pm CST
+ there's to be a Bee movie(as in Bumblebee)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 13th, 2016 @ 2:49pm CST
Posted by partholon on February 13th, 2016 @ 2:57pm CST
is there seriously demand for a bumblebee movie ?
i mean Fking bumblebee !
if your gonna concentrate on on origin story of one of the main characters surely to GOD its prime !
i'll be hnonest i was having a hard enough time going to the regular films now as they continually disapoint on everything past the effects front.
theres got to be some sort of mad karma going on that the films seem to be getting worse inversely porportional to the rise in quality of the comics.
i wont condemn it completely and will wait to see what theyre selling us in the trailers but TBH im first reponse upon hearing this was "God no ".
Posted by Microraptor on February 13th, 2016 @ 3:30pm CST
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 13th, 2016 @ 3:32pm CST
Microraptor wrote:Is it wrong that i'm ecstatic over a Bumblebee film?
I am neutral about it. I hope we see how he loses his voice.
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on February 13th, 2016 @ 4:27pm CST
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 13th, 2016 @ 4:52pm CST
Carnivius_Prime wrote:More awesome CGI robot fight scenes, transformations and lots of toys for me.
Hopefully not all the toys are Bumblebee.
Posted by Mykltron on February 14th, 2016 @ 3:58am CST
SillySpringer wrote:Carnivius_Prime wrote:More awesome CGI robot fight scenes, transformations and lots of toys for me.
Hopefully not all the toys are Bumblebee.
The movie is going to bee like this, but all Bumblebees:
Posted by Sabrblade on February 14th, 2016 @ 11:57am CST
Though, would it just be retelling the events of the Movie Prequel, or would they write a new "How Bee lost his voice" backstory?
Posted by Stuartmaximus on February 14th, 2016 @ 1:47pm CST
& it doesn't matter who writes the story! coz if Bay's in charge, he'll just want things done HIS way.
& YES! there's nothing to suggest at this time that Bay'll be in charge of those OTHER movies! but as long as they keep on throwing money at it, he'll keep on coming back to the directors chair.
Posted by partholon on February 14th, 2016 @ 3:57pm CST
but the problem with the movies set on earth isnt that humans are in it. its that humans are the focus of the films on earth, when they really should be just the foil to get to the transformery goodness.
if hasbro did a film using IDWs "infiltration" and "escalation" trades as inspiration it'd kick arse.
"infiltration" went ALONG way to establishing megatron as a bad ass in the IDW universe, used intrigue, drama, had some great quips/banter , and gave the impression of a larger TF universe out there without the need to actually SEE it, and did it all with relatively few "set" peices and a human cast that complimented the TF action.
it'd probably cost half of what age of extiction did to do it.
i mean jesus who DOESNT want to see that made just to see that "take your punishment like a decepticon" line !
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on February 14th, 2016 @ 8:47pm CST
Microraptor wrote:Is it wrong that i'm ecstatic over a Bumblebee film?
Nope, I'm intrigued, interested, and sort of excited. A different kind of backstory, and I'm interested to see where things go
Posted by TurboMMaster on February 18th, 2016 @ 5:10pm CST
You think that Bayverse's Timeline isn't ridiculous enough already?Sabrblade wrote:Though, would it just be retelling the events of the Movie Prequel, or would they write a new "How Bee lost his voice" backstory?
Posted by Sabrblade on February 18th, 2016 @ 5:17pm CST
Well, the ideal option would be for them to adapt the Movie Prequel into film form, but as it's not something they're obligated to do, they could always make a new backstory that ignores the Movieverse comics (as unpleasant as that'd probably be since the comics were the primary medium that attempted to patch up all the continuity holes between the films themselves).TurboMMaster wrote:You think that Bayverse's Timeline isn't ridiculous enough already?Sabrblade wrote:Though, would it just be retelling the events of the Movie Prequel, or would they write a new "How Bee lost his voice" backstory?
Posted by Stuartmaximus on February 19th, 2016 @ 9:29pm CST
Posted by Va'al on March 16th, 2016 @ 3:44am CDT
As you can see in the video, Kirkman says that he loves Transformers, and became a part of the writing team after a casual lunch wth di Bonaventura, who optioned his comic Invincible (the comic adaption list that Perri mentions in the video is Dave Trumbore’s 10 Comic Books That Need an R-Rated Adaptation). Still, though he’s no longer a part of the project (which is a bummer because it seems insane and his involvement made it seem somehow less so), he says,
“I have heard from the people that are in that room there are a lot of amazing Transformers things coming, and I’m very happy as a fan to see what comes from that.”
Posted by Va'al on March 16th, 2016 @ 3:45am CDT
As you can see in the video, Kirkman says that he loves Transformers, and became a part of the writing team after a casual lunch wth di Bonaventura, who optioned his comic Invincible (the comic adaption list that Perri mentions in the video is Dave Trumbore’s 10 Comic Books That Need an R-Rated Adaptation). Still, though he’s no longer a part of the project (which is a bummer because it seems insane and his involvement made it seem somehow less so), he says,
“I have heard from the people that are in that room there are a lot of amazing Transformers things coming, and I’m very happy as a fan to see what comes from that.”
Posted by Windsweeper on April 22nd, 2016 @ 4:22am CDT
He is to writers what Michael Bay is to directors.
Posted by Burn on April 22nd, 2016 @ 7:22am CDT
Windsweeper wrote:He is to writers what Michael Bay is to directors.
Someone who makes movies that generate millions of dollars and are hugely successful around the world and puts people like Uwe Boll to shame?
Though really, Uwe Boll puts Uwe Boll to shame.
Posted by Deadput on April 22nd, 2016 @ 9:51am CDT
Windsweeper wrote:I will never be happy with the inclusion of Akiva Goldsman.
He is to writers what Michael Bay is to directors.
He wrote one bad super hero movie so what who cares?
Micheal Bay has made some decent films and some bad ones and if I recall Akiva has some movie awards.