Transformers the movie: 2006 (1 Viewer)

[Vince Maskeeper]

From a full 2-page spread ad in Variety today:

"Dreamworks Pictures and Paramount Pictures are proud to announce the aquisition of the worldwide film rights to TRANSFORMERS."

Dreamworks will oversee the production of the film, a "thrilling action adventure" for release in 2006. Hasbro will serve as consultants on the film (supposedly so will Takara- the original Japanese company that developed the toy Transformers were based upon), Dreamworks will produce and distrubute domestically and Paramound have world distro.

The film will be live action, Spielberg will Exec Produce with Lorenzo diBonaventura, Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto producing.

The Variety ad shows 3-d drawings of Optimus over the autobot logo and Megatron over the decepticon logo (drawing, i assume from the previous comic version, as each is signed Pat Lee)

-V

 

[Chris Atkins]

Live action on this material will be quite an undertaking. It could be spectacular, or terrible.

If they pull it off, I demand that they make a live action MACROSS next...

 

[Pete-D]

Originally when rumors of this project started whispering about, I envisoned it getting a lower budget, but now with Spielberg and DeSanto on it, I'm assuming it's gonna be a huge summer movie type vehicle.

The thing is the Transformers back story/history is quite interesting, they could really, really do some great things with it.

I can already see the teaser ... guy getting out of car, turns away, cue "transforming" noise, he looks back at a giant robot staring back at him. Cut to "2006".

 

[Rick Guynn]

Better yet, if this actually works out well, maybe someone will take some of Michael Stackpole's 'Mechwarrior' stories and do movies on them

RG

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

They should be working on Macross WELL before they even think about a Transformers film. Priorities all mixed up as usual! What's next? "Voltron: The Movie"?

-Dennis

 

[Pete-D]

Thing is I think Transformers has a huge undercurrent of people familiar with the characters who are now in their 20s as well as younger kids and teenagers.

Every now and again I see the autobot/decepticon logos on t-shits people are wearing or even on cars that kids are souping up for races.

If they handle this thing the right way, it could be a big franchise.

Look at the Autobot City siege battle in the animated movie. Imagine something like that in live action.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

I'll be in line opening night 2006, with my vintage Optimus Prime toy in hand (in robot form of course).

I am SUCH a geek!!!

So this one's for the guys...

I'm wondering when we'll be hearing news about My Little Pony: The Movie, or Strawberry Shortcake: The Movie... for the ladies.

Moe.

 

[Pete-D]

My guess is if this is a hit, there will be a mad rush to greenlight G.I. Joe, He-Man, and Thundercats just like the current rash of superhero properties being snatched up by every studio.

 

[Richard Travale]

I'm still waiting on the live action 'Sgt. Rock' movie.

I'm glad to hear that the Transformers movie is not going to be low budget crap.

 

[Jason Seaver]

There's also a rumor that Zemeckis is going to be directing it. I think he'd be a good director for the project, though I wonder if he's ever going to get back to comic fantasies.

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

I do have high hopes with the big names attached.

But somebody really needs to do a Macross film trilogy...calling Mr. Cameron, are you there?

-Dennis

 

[MarcusUdeh]

The concept of a live action Transformers picture doesn’t set well with me. The fact we aren’t in the 80’s where this property began its glory years, and then young people like myself had an appetite for something like this. I remember the animated movie, and to this day I still appreciate it. Some here hear the name Spielberg assume quality, but I don’t think he gives a frog’s fat ass about Transformers because if he did he could’ve easily led the campaign to get this live action feature into production back when it made sense.

 

[Sean Laughter]

Back when it made sense? Back when the robots would have more than likely looked like utter crap? I also think the distance is a good thing, and maybe if they're aiming it at the more mature audience that the original audience has grown into, perhaps more of the horrendously silly and ridiculous stuff will be excised and we can get a good, semi-serious treatment of the material.

 

[Pete-D]

It would be cool if the movie started off in 1985 and then let the sequels work their work up to 21st century, since I would assume the first film will be an origin story.

Get Vince DiCola to do the score, heh.

 

[Sean Moon]

Honestly, the technology back in the 80s couldnt do a good live action transformers movie. Today, I think it will still be a horrifying challenge, thats why they need a good tech director like Zemeckis on this. I am very curious about this. If they put out a test shot of some FX tests like sony did with Spidey, I should get pants wettening excited.

 

[teapot2001]

I think the technology now is good enough to make convincing robots. When I saw the demolish robot in I Robot, I immediately thought of how good the robots in Transformers could look, and the effects in this video look pretty good: http://www.evil-products.com/movies/...rmers_mpeg.htm

~T

 

[Robert Anthony]

Don Murphy has stated Zemeckis isn't doing this. I don't know WHO they're going to get, but apparently it's not Zemeckis.

 

[Michael X]

I don't see it being much "live action", unless it's a mangled storyline and they go out of their way to put humans in the film more than they were in the series. I'm definitely surprised to hear the announcement, I kind of figured Hollywood would exhaust the comic book and cartoon characters before turning to anime for movie material. Maybe this has something to do with the DVD releases of the series selling incredibly well. It's good to hear big names attached, but I'm also wary of such things as it usually winds up being a whole epic series squashed into a 2 hour flick, or noone involved in the decision making watched the original animation, and it winds up looking great but lacking the appeal of the original like so many other things that have been re-hashed for the big screen. If they get it right, and its a blockbuster, hopefully this will pave the way for more movies with anime as the original material.

About the Macross comment, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Theres probably a greater chance of a Gundam film being made. The original Macross anime movie is so tangled up in rights, I doubt a Hollywood studio will mess with it. If it does ever happen, there will probably be a huge backlash by the fanboys if anyone other than Mari Iijimi is cast as Minmei, for the vocals at the very least. The other thing is, I doubt the general public would watch a subtitled live-action anime mecha flick.

 

[Pete-D]

I really think the CGI technology to do this has been around for years.

They could've really made this five or six years ago. Of course it should look better today just because of the refinements and what not.

It should be easier to animate robotic characters like Optimus Prime than trying to create CGI humans or more organic types of characters.

Really I think its been years since there's been a concept where you had to go "hmmm.... you know, I don't even think that's possible". The Matrix was probably the last real special effects breakthrough.

These days, if a director can dream it up, its possible.

 

[Sean Moon]

What I wanna see in this is a large scale battle, like Autobot city, or the San Francisco battle from the recent comics. Just something to show the scale of the robots.

The MPEG link above was neat, very promising.

For the director, as I said before, he should be a very technical director like Zemeckis, where the FX seem seamless with everything and not showy, like Stephen Sommers would do. Whenever I think of good FX getting seamlessly put into a shot and amazing me, but not beating me over the head saying "LOOK WE ARE EFFECTS!" is Spielberg's stuff like A.I. and MINORITY REPORT. Just how easily the stuff was in there so subtly yet still looking amazing. The story was first, the FX second.