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Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans

Posted by Seibertron Feb 3, 2017 at 6:06pm CST 54,627 views
Michael Bay posted a letter to Transformers fans on his website, MichaelBay.com. Here's the letter along with an expanded writers' log line for your reading pleasure.

Only One World Will Survive: Theirs, or Ours
Posted on Feb 2, 2017

Transformers News: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans

I've been living in this franchise for over 10 years now. For Transformers: The Last Knight, we put together a writers' room designed to greatly expand our mythology, integrating our films in a whole new way. Every movie will interlink.

It was a huge task to expand mythology from the beginning of the world throughout history. We had a great team of writers: Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind); Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man); Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down); Zak Penn (Ready Player One); Lindsey Beer (Barbie); Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider); Christina Hodson (Bumblebee); Steven DeKnight (Daredevil, Smallville); Jeff Pinkner (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Lost); and Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man).

Through the summer of 2015, they worked in a huge space on the Paramount lot, surrounded by over 10,000 concept images from the franchise's history: the movies, cartoons, and comic books. They had a life-size Bumblebee, a Megatron head, and many other props staring them down. We pulled from everything. It was a fan's dream room.

We brought in Transformers historians from Hasbro to educate them on where Transformers has been – so that they could figure out where it can go.

I can safely say that there's never been a Transformers film with the huge visual scope and expansive mythology as this movie, The Last Knight.

It's bittersweet for me. With every Transformers film, I've said it would be my last. I see the 120 million fans around the world who see these movies, the huge theme park lines to the ride and the amazing Make- A-Wish kids who visit my sets, and it somehow keeps drawing me back. I love doing these movies. This film was especially fun to shoot. But, this time might really be it. So I'm blowing this one out.

It's a final chapter and a new beginning. Here's the writers' log line:

The Last Knight shatters the core myths of the Transformers franchise, and redefines what it means to be a hero. Humans and Transformers are at war, Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth. Saving our world falls upon the shoulders of an unlikely alliance: Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg); Bumblebee; an English Lord (Sir Anthony Hopkins); and an Oxford Professor (Laura Haddock).

There comes a moment in everyone's life when we are called upon to make a difference.

In Transformers: The Last Knight, the hunted will become heroes. Heroes will become villains. Only one world will survive: theirs, or ours.


Transformers: the Last Knight opens nationwide on June 23rd, 2017. Check out the Super Bowl "Big Game" trailer below.

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Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Insurgent Feb 3, 2017
Dammit Grimlock, stop blowing up the grass!
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by kurthy Feb 3, 2017
So it's going to be 3 humans and bumblebee instead of 2 humans and bumblebee.

Mind blown!! :michaelbay:

:roll:
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 3, 2017
kurthy wrote:So it's going to be 3 humans and bumblebee instead of 2 humans and bumblebee.

Mind blown!! :michaelbay:

:roll:


Their the main characters why would they not be shown in a 30 second spot you do know there is not much you can do in that little amount of time right?

The big trailers are the ones with more characters.

Now days most Transformers shows and these movies have one main character and then supporting characters so we have main Human characters and main Transformer characters and the rest are supporting hence less time in the first trailers.

In the franchise since the beginning the main Transformer characters have always been Optimus Prime and Megatron and only recently has Bumblebee been added to the list anyone else is a supporting character.
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Alpha Dominus Feb 3, 2017
Deadput wrote:
Their the main characters why would they not be shown in a 30 second spot you do know there is not much you can do in that little amount of time right?

In the franchise since the beginning the main Transformer characters have always been Optimus Prime and Megatron and only recently has Bumblebee been added to the list anyone else is a supporting character.



Your condescension is noted. I think the main gripe with these movies is that the focus seems to be centered on human relationships that supersede the notion of Transformers as main characters rather than mere set pieces. You'd think that after 4 movies (I haven't seen the next one yet so I can't critique.)we'd be treated to character development for other Transformers besides Optimus Prime.

Hello? Writers? The movies are called "Transformers",right?
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 3, 2017
Alpha Dominus wrote:

Your condescension is noted. I think the main gripe with these movies is that the focus seems to be centered on human relationships that supersede the notion of Transformers as main characters rather than mere set pieces. You'd think that after 4 movies (I haven't seen the next one yet so I can't critique.)we'd be treated to character development for other Transformers besides Optimus Prime.

Hello? Writers? The movies are called "Transformers",right?


The camera might be on humans a lot but the plot of the movie is always focused on the Transformers the movie is about them but it's from human perspective.

What kind of character development can you even give to the other Transformer characters Optimus is a leader and he has solid development and Bumblebee had some in the first 2 films but after that there was nothing else to do with him but what development does Hound or Sideswipe need are you sure you don't mean screen time?

The humans besides the leads sure don't get character development I mean did Lennox and Epps (best humans in the films) get any development after the first movie?

The Autobots have already been fighting the war for years and they have been on Earth for over 10 years so there is nothing new for them to do really besides defend the planet again.

The perspective is from the humans side because their made by humans for humans and it's cheaper to have real actors on camera then budget eating Cgi robots and that the Transformers are huge compared to humans so it's kind of hard to film in their perspective unless there are no humans or other small characters on set it's the same problem with city bots and combiners compared to normal sized Transformers it's hard to do their perspective problem.


TLDR: There is no way to realisticly fix that problem until years from now when cgi is a lot cheaper to make compared to now.
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 3, 2017
Alpha Dominus wrote:
Your condescension is noted. I think the main gripe with these movies is that the focus seems to be centered on human relationships that supersede the notion of Transformers as main characters rather than mere set pieces. You'd think that after 4 movies (I haven't seen the next one yet so I can't critique.)we'd be treated to character development for other Transformers besides Optimus Prime.

Hello? Writers? The movies are called "Transformers",right?


Wanted to make a separate reply for this post so you can see it clearly anyways I've been following the filming and news for this movie very closely so that the only things I don't know is the stuff being withheld.

The filming had the AOE Autobots (Bee, Hound, Drift and Crosshairs) on set a lot and Barricade has been seen a lot on set almost as much as Bee so he is a very major Transformer in this film and although less then the other 5 I've mentioned Hot Rod is seen plenty on set with Bee So those 6, Prime and Megatron are major characters.


When it comes to new Autobots besides Hot Rod we have 2 maybe 4 of them one of them is Squeeks who is the kid appeal character of the movie then there is "Cogman" who Bay says is a headmaster who turns into a Aston Martin besides those two there is a red McLaren who has been seen with Hot Rod and Cogman who are presumably their own trio of bots as counterparts to the AOE Bee team and finally there is an old WW2 Tank on set that is seen with Anthony Hopkins but I doubt such character is an important one and there is a chance it's not a Transformer but it has been seen following Anthony's character around during filming.


About Decepticons besides Megatron and Barricade one con's name has been confirmed and his name is Onslaught who was seen quite a few times with Barricade and a rusty Vw van as well as a silver motorcycle who was with them briefly and according to the leaked toys there is a Con named Berserker who looks like Crankcase but is obviously a minor character.
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Stuartmaximus Feb 4, 2017
Deadput wrote:
Alpha Dominus wrote:
Your condescension is noted. I think the main gripe with these movies is that the focus seems to be centered on human relationships that supersede the notion of Transformers as main characters rather than mere set pieces. You'd think that after 4 movies (I haven't seen the next one yet so I can't critique.)we'd be treated to character development for other Transformers besides Optimus Prime.

Hello? Writers? The movies are called "Transformers",right?


Wanted to make a separate reply for this post so you can see it clearly anyways I've been following the filming and news for this movie very closely so that the only things I don't know is the stuff being withheld.

The filming had the AOE Autobots (Bee, Hound, Drift and Crosshairs) on set a lot and Barricade has been seen a lot on set almost as much as Bee so he is a very major Transformer in this film and although less then the other 5 I've mentioned Hot Rod is seen plenty on set with Bee So those 6, Prime and Megatron are major characters.


When it comes to new Autobots besides Hot Rod we have 2 maybe 4 of them one of them is Squeeks who is the kid appeal character of the movie then there is "Cogman" who Bay says is a headmaster who turns into a Aston Martin besides those two there is a red McLaren who has been seen with Hot Rod and Cogman who are presumably their own trio of bots as counterparts to the AOE Bee team and finally there is an old WW2 Tank on set that is seen with Anthony Hopkins but I doubt such character is an important one and there is a chance it's not a Transformer but it has been seen following Anthony's character around during filming.


About Decepticons besides Megatron and Barricade one con's name has been confirmed and his name is Onslaught who was seen quite a few times with Barricade and a rusty Vw van as well as a silver motorcycle who was with them briefly and according to the leaked toys there is a Con named Berserker who looks like Crankcase but is obviously a minor character.


btw the tank is supposedly Warpath....and you missed out the sub....who is also a transformer
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Feb 4, 2017
Stuartmaximus wrote:btw the tank is supposedly Warpath....and you missed out the sub....who is also a transformer

the tank cannot be Warpath. It looks more like a human piloted or controlled mecha. It may be nicknamed the "warpath" but that thing is almost definitely not a Cybertronian.

And where do you see the sub being a TF? You are the only one I've heard say it
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 4, 2017
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:the tank cannot be Warpath. It looks more like a human piloted or controlled mecha. It may be nicknamed the "warpath" but that thing is almost definitely not a Cybertronian.

And where do you see the sub being a TF? You are the only one I've heard say it


While there is no confirmation that the tank is Warpath your also incorrect about the tank I'm referring to which is not the walker drone used by the TRF from the trailer but a WW2 tank as in World War 2.

The tank is behind the guy on the right in this image I'm using this image because there aren't any other good pictures of it.

Image


The submarine Transformer was one of the first things we heard about in an early interview there is no name or allegiance stated and it has not been seen being filmed due to it being a submarine.
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 4, 2017
Stuartmaximus wrote:
btw the tank is supposedly Warpath....and you missed out the sub....who is also a transformer


I already told you there is no confirmation that the tank is Warpath and while the name has been used on set by Bay there is no definites it's going to be a name in the final film since Warpath is a common code name for characters such as the wreckers so that if they were leaked the info would not be to spoilery.

Besides that one interview that stated about the character's existence being a concept it has not been seen on set nor mentioned so obviously the character is not a major one which means I was not going to talk about it in my comment which the subject was talking about confirmed major characters not minor ones hence I did not mention the poor yellow chap from the first trailer or any of the Cybertronian refuges that were talked about by Bay during the early days of filming..
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Stuartmaximus Feb 4, 2017
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:And where do you see the sub being a TF? You are the only one I've heard say it


the ONLY one?
Screenshot_2017-02-04-08-13-13-1.png
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 4, 2017
Stuartmaximus wrote:
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:And where do you see the sub being a TF? You are the only one I've heard say it


the ONLY one?
Screenshot_2017-02-04-08-13-13-1.png



Don't blame him the Submarine Transformer is something that hardly anyone here knows about since we don't talk about it since we know nothing besides "it exists"


And not everyone pays attention to every comment on this site I mean I sure as hell don't and I'm one of the more "news hunter" people on here when it comes to the movies.
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Stuartmaximus Feb 4, 2017
Deadput wrote:
Stuartmaximus wrote:
btw the tank is supposedly Warpath....and you missed out the sub....who is also a transformer


I already told you there is no confirmation that the tank is Warpath and while the name has been used on set by Bay there is no definites it's going to be a name in the final film since Warpath is a common code name for characters such as the wreckers so that if they were leaked the info would not be to spoilery.

Besides that one interview that stated about the character's existence being a concept it has not been seen on set nor mentioned so obviously the character is not a major one which means I was not going to talk about it in my comment which the subject was talking about confirmed major characters not minor ones hence I did not mention the poor yellow chap from the first trailer or any of the Cybertronian refuges that were talked about by Bay during the early days of filming..


well you are gonna look bloody stupid if it indeed turns out to be Warpath! but you are correct in the fact that we've go nothing concrete...so far...to go on.

oh...btw...one thing i AM sure of though....the tank...is WW1 not WW2.




A news hunter...eh, well...you should probably stick to that instead of shooting peoples opinions & speculations down in flames
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Stuartmaximus Feb 4, 2017
Deadput wrote:the Submarine Transformer is something that hardly anyone here knows about since we don't talk about it since we know nothing besides "it exists"



well....it's good to know that at least someone besides myself acknowledges it's existence ;)
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Deadput Feb 4, 2017
Stuartmaximus wrote:
well you are gonna look bloody stupid if it indeed turns out to be Warpath! but you are correct in the fact that we've go nothing concrete...so far...to go on.

oh...btw...one thing i AM sure of though....the tank...is WW1 not WW2.




A news hunter...eh, well...you should probably stick to that instead of shooting peoples opinions & speculations down in flames


Why would I look stupid I only said there is no proof that his name is Warpath not that he is not Warpath, thanks for the correction of what war the Tank is from I get my world wars confused with each other when it comes to what tech was used then.

I can't hunt for news when there is none to hunt but I reload my pages everyday usally once every couple hours during any spare time.

I'm not one to actually shoot down opinions but I'm one to question them about why they have those opinions while giving them my own opinion, the only ones I actually do shoot down are those like "The movies and everyone who enjoys them suck because their not true fans cause I said so!" an exaggerated example but sadly not too far off from what I have seen you know the ones that make you question why your even putting up with your life in the first place.

If my comments seem like "My opinion is the only good one" then sorry about it not my intention I'm just a pretty aggressive guy with anger issues so negative opinions dig at me and I feel forced to reply back although I try to keep it to opinion debates instead of insults.
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Emerje Feb 4, 2017
Nobody's going to look stupid just because their speculation was wrong and someone else's speculation was right. ;)

Emerje
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by Stuartmaximus Feb 4, 2017
Deadput wrote:
Stuartmaximus wrote:
well you are gonna look bloody stupid if it indeed turns out to be Warpath! but you are correct in the fact that we've go nothing concrete...so far...to go on.

oh...btw...one thing i AM sure of though....the tank...is WW1 not WW2.




A news hunter...eh, well...you should probably stick to that instead of shooting peoples opinions & speculations down in flames


Why would I look stupid I only said there is no proof that his name is Warpath not that he is not Warpath, thanks for the correction of what war the Tank is from I get my world wars confused with each other when it comes to what tech was used then.

I can't hunt for news when there is none to hunt but I reload my pages everyday usally once every couple hours during any spare time.

I'm not one to actually shoot down opinions but I'm one to question them about why they have those opinions while giving them my own opinion, the only ones I actually do shoot down are those like "The movies and everyone who enjoys them suck because their not true fans cause I said so!" an exaggerated example but sadly not too far off from what I have seen you know the ones that make you question why your even putting up with your life in the first place.

If my comments seem like "My opinion is the only good one" then sorry about it not my intention I'm just a pretty aggressive guy with anger issues so negative opinions dig at me and I feel forced to reply back although I try to keep it to opinion debates instead of insults.



;) ;)^
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by DedicatedGhostArt Feb 4, 2017
Not gonna lie, I'm starting to get a bit hyped for this movie. :D
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by william-james88 Feb 4, 2017
So am I!
Re: Michael Bay's Letter To Transformers Fans (view post)
Comment by DedicatedGhostArt Feb 4, 2017
william-james88 wrote:So am I!


This letter really makes me feel that this movie might have some good things about it. Could even have; dare I say it; lore. Now, let's just hope the toys after the movie comes out are decent. :lol:
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