Having multiple threads with slightly remoulded content is Combiner War-ing them ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Wiggum
(sorry, couldn't help it)
Printable View
Having multiple threads with slightly remoulded content is Combiner War-ing them ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Wiggum
(sorry, couldn't help it)
Filming may be over, but a few news articles have surfaced that relate to the production side of things...
Anthony Hopkins talks about Michael Bay, noting that he thinks he is a genius, similar to some other legendary directors.
(disputing that claim should be posted in the Michael Bay topic, to prevent this one from going off-topic)
And a statement by Michael Bay himself about the future of the Transformers Movie series, notes that the room of writers from a couple years ago, generated 14 different storylines that Paramount has to choose from, for future movies.... to use or not use, it's up to them and how future movies work out.
Looks like John Turturro (agent Simmons) might be back for TF5, as he has been shown off by Michael Bay during some post-production reshoots.
Maybe a last minute squeezing in of Sector 7 into the historical theme of this movie, to fit in the obvious element, of the organisation that has been tracking Transformers for decades.
A magazine article about the Transformers movie has a nice glossy image of the new character Hot Rod in robot mode... and the full article to read can be found here.
A nice clear image of Megatron in the Movie... showing how huge he is compared to humans and vehicles.
Now, if Berzerker in robot mode is anywhere near as big as Megatron, there must be a LOT of mass-shifting taking place, as the vehicles in that image are the size of his hands.
Hardly surprising, but Michael Bay wanted explosions at Stonehenge... so had to build a replica to do it, as he wasn't (obviously) allowed to risk doing any damage at the real one.
Correct me if I'm wrong but free-to-air tv Channel One tomorrow evening is screening the movie the Last Knights.
Did not know Raiden was one of the characters in the movie.Quote:
The epic tale of Knights Commander Raiden and his band off warriors who wage battle against the corrupt and sadistic ruler to avenge the unjust death of their honorable leader.
One of the voice actors for a Transformers character has been confirmed, with the return of Reno Wilson.
He has voiced roles in all four previous Transformers Movies, doing Frenzy, Mudflap and Brains. It is not yet known what character(s) he is doing for this one.
Some more behind-the-scenes video clips, featuring the expensive sports cars in the fifth Movie.
This one is during their filming on the streets outside Buckingham Palace, while this one has a look at the cars themselves.
I'm amazed and impressed at the speeds they were driving in the roads around Buckingham Palace.
Something that was mentioned in the live Q&A the other night was about the character Cogman, which could be another red herring by Michael Bay so that it doesn't spoil the surprise (like saying that Megatron was not returning for TF2)... so true or not, it is a spoiler either way.
Don't read on, if for some reason you were already looking at this spoiler-filled topic and don't want to be spoiled.
Many are already aware from a recent media release... and the reveal of the Deluxe toy... Cogman is a Head/Titanmaster.
Michael Bay mentioned this again in the Q&A, but told the audience that he wanted him to actually fulfil his original gimmick, to rip off the head of another bot and take control of its body (like the Japanese Godmasters taking control of lifeless robot bodies).
Now, this could still actually happen in the movie, and he's just trying to seed a little doubt to anyone who already read about that gimmick in the recent press release. But in case it really was cut due to budget (as he claims), it wouldn't be the first time a Hasbro toy or gimmick was released that didn't end up in it's corresponding movie. The first movie was originally supposed to have Wreckage and Arcee, while TF2 was meant to have the three Arcee bikes combine into one robot, but since the toys take longer to produce than the amount of time it takes to film and generate CGI in post production, the concepts in the original script and promo/concept art were started by the toy designers long before it was changed by Michael Bay. And by the time something is changed during filming and post-production (like Optimus's sword in the first movie), it's too late to change it in the first release of that toy.
So if this story is true, the Cogman and Nitro toys will have a gimmick that was supposed to be in the movie (Nitro's head on the Deluxe toy can be removed and replaced with Cogmans... but Nitro's head isn't a Titanmaster). And it would be a shame, as it would be a wasted gimmick that may not be easy to explain on the toys (at least for Nitro - a toy that is said to have a removable/retractable head that won't make much sense if it isn't in the movie... to give kids and collectors a movie scene to play out).
Here's one we've heard three times before... Michael Bay says this will be his last Transformers movie. Although, the live Q&A the other night had him say it was a 98% chance it was his last, and to never rule anything out... so it will just mean Hasbro and Paramount will throw more money his way to get him to come back, like they've done in the past.
On a related note, Mark Wahlberg is calling it quits after just two movies. Even if the Bumblebee movie is set in the past (not yet confirmed), Mark said he won't be back for TF7 in two years time... which will give the writers something to have to work around.
Even though the movies are called "Transformers", the focus is really on the human characters occasionally interacting with alien robots (mostly due to the expense of having CGI robots on screen)... but it's also for the benefit of the regular movie-goers who aren't Transformers fans, going to see an action movie and needing to relate to characters on screen (being human makes that easier) in order to recommend the movie to other non-fans. Significant changes to the main cast of human characters will confuse the non-fans who make up the bulk of the paying audience, who would see the robots as secondary supporting characters, particularly as the human characters are the ones doing the main tasks between the sporadic robot battle scenes. It also takes away time from the main plot having to explain the new main human characters in each film.
An interview with Tyrese Gibson tells us that he was originally planning to be in the TF5 movie, but filming for Fast 8 in America (while they were filming TF5 in Europe), made it impossible to be available.
So... his character was probably in the script, but then had to be removed or replaced with another character.
Some concept art has been released to instagram by concept artists working on TF5, showing us what some robot characters first looked like before filming began, and before they were drawn by computer animators.
The first is Canopy, initially called "Ruins Bot", who was the one at the start of the movie protecting Isabella. It shows that this character was supposed to turn into a subway train, as a protector of several small Cybertronians, but ended up looking more like Long Haul from the second movie.
Another image has a fight scene between Drift and Mohawk, which also didn't happen in the movie.
There are also a few of a Unicron horn and Cybertron in space, which look like how they ended up in the movie.
And an early artwork of the "Day Trader" Autobot (the one that turned into the rubbish truck), who looked very organic, and a little like the Actor who voiced him (Steve Buscemi). The final version on film looked a lot more like Hound, with a "beard".
More concept art has been released, showing a much different form of Bumblebee, and Barricade in the original black colouring (which must have been changed to blue very late, as the Hasbro toys are black, and changing the colour of the plastic would be a lot easier than a mould change like Hound with cannons in vehicle mode).
There is also artwork of Hound, Daytrader, some TRF vehicles, the Submarine (still with no name), and the rusted Optimus drifting in space.
You can also see how early concept art is done, with one piece saying November 2015 on it.... which oddly enough, is Bumblebee as a type of Ford Mustang GT - which could have just been to pitch to Ford, to get the bidding going between rivals GM and Ford, for the next version of Bumblebee (it may not bring in huge money directly to the car company from sales of their cars, but their logo and car will be everywhere in global marketing for the movie, and not just during this one movie, but forever, which they then benefit from).
I can imagine that this might be happening more now, as the budget gets bigger, while the potential returns get smaller. As long as it still evokes the feel of Bumblebee in both modes (especially to the regular public who may not easily know the difference between expensive sports cars that they won't see driving in their neighbourhood), that iconic character of the Brand could easily go to the highest bidder, or to the car company willing to donate cars to the movie.
Some more concept art has been released - one of the Knights, and... Optimus Primal - yes, PRIMAL. The big gorilla (literally big) was obviously in an early draft of the script, and artwork was done up as a visual reference for filming and CGI, but somewhere along the line, the concept was dropped... probably to reduce the length of the movie, because the music composer Steve Jablonsky has commented in a youtube video about his time on the fifth movie, saying that it wasn't as good as previous ones because of the huge amount of last minute editing to significantly reduce the length of the movie.
Yes, the 2 & 1/2 hour movie is apparently significantly less than what was originally filmed, and Steve was frustrated that the music he composed for the original cut, was chopped up (too late to recompose it) to a point of making no sense in parts.
We already know about the intention to have Cogman transform into a head and take control of Nitro, but where do you think a gorilla version of Optimus Prime/Primal would have taken place in the fifth movie?Quote:
“I do think the first film was kind of more put together than maybe some of these more recent ones, like the Last Knight, it was great to work on, we had a blast, but there were a lot of picture changes right up ’til the end,” he said.
Probably the biggest challenge for Jablonsky while working on the Last Knight was the constant shortening of film. After critics and audiences alike complained about the runtime of Transformers: Age of Extinction, the latest film was continuously compacted down to avoid the same issue. This even extended to the end credits, which only lasted through the duration of one song as the credits flashed rather than the traditional scrolling.
“Bay, up until the last minute, was really trying to shorten The Last Knight. So every cut we would get, the scenes would all kind of be [shortened],” Jablonsky said.
The shortening of the film ultimately messed with the timing and tempo of the music, which led to some issues as it would start to no longer fit in the scene, leading Jablonsky to throwing out sections of the music and starting over.
“That’s one of the reasons why I released such an obnoxiously long soundtrack for this new Transformers, because we had so much music and I said ‘I just want to release everything the way I wrote it, not the way it’s in the film, because it’s hard for me to watch the film when I just hear every edit,'” he said.
Jablonsky noted that toward the end of production, it would get to the point where editing changes to both the picture and the music would be made without being notified, which he understands since there was so much going on and it would be impossible to relay that information back and forth so often, however he feels that the music was not the best it could be in the final version of the film.
“There are several scenes that used to have a nice melodic flow through the scene, but now it’s like five notes from the theme and it cuts to the next part and then it cuts to the next part,” he said. “It pains me to listen to this because it was so much better before. I know it was so much better before, but I understand [Bay] needs to shorten his film.”
Jablonsky discusses things such as beginning his work with Michael Bay for the first time, writing the music for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and more. His words on The Last Knight begin at 31:07.
Could Quintessa have turned Optimus into Primal instead of Nemesis Prime, in the original script?
(unfortunately, Michael Bay doesn't seem to like releasing extended or Director cuts, and rarely releases deleted scenes on DVDs, so we may never see any of the missing bits of the fifth movie)
How can a movie about giant robots blowing the crap out of each other be envisaged as a 3+ hour epic? We're talking about selling toys here, not adapting the hallowed writings of JRR Tolkien.
Another piece of concept art, of WW2 Bumblebee.
I thought the interview with Steve Jablonsky was very unfortunate for him. He's a pretty good film composer and it's clear that he wasn't happy with the final product in this film. I'd be pretty ticked if I'd had my work chopped up like that to fit some studio perceived requirement.*
* caveat, I think the movie was more than long enough, I did wonder where the cogman taking control of Nitro scene was knowing about the toy. It looks like he understands the need to shorten the film, but I wish for his sake it had happened earlier in the planning stages.
More concept art has been found, of WW2 Hotrod, and one of the Knights.
More concept art, with one of Unicron's horns, Megatron in jet mode, Mohawk, and two tank-bots.
Heaps of concept art has been surfacing now that the movie is over...
A guardian knight.
A giant robotic snake (and I mean giant... similar to the giant gorilla concept art a few weeks back).
You gotta wonder where the original script was going with these giant beasts, and why they were cut some time before filming.
Barricade, with the original "protect and serve" all over him... before it was changed back to "punish and enslave" (maybe fan feedback required it to be retained).
A red Cybertronian Knight.
Original Megatron jet-mode art, looking more like a cybertronian version of the "Jetfire" blackbird stealth jet.
Another Cybertronian Knight.
Rough drawings of two tank bots that weren't the ones in the previous posting.
Merlin's tomb, and the tomb ship coming to the surface of the water. (note that some of the artwork here has their dates by order of year, month, and then day)
The core of the Infernocus combiner, Skulk.
The TRF Sentry tank.
It's nice to see the evolution of certain characters and sets, sometimes for the better... but a tease if the concepts don't end up making it into the final version of the movie.
More concept art...
- A Unicron horn in Hong Kong Harbour (as if that city hasn't suffered enough already), and two of Megatron.
- Dragonstorm, the two Knights ships, and Hot Rod (who appears to have originally been called Sidekick).
More of the concept artwork for the "Optimus Primal", that obviously had a role in the fifth movie in an early draft of the script.
Concept art of Onslaught (looks like a cross between Brawl and Long Haul), and different views inside the ship that had Merlin's tomb.
Concept art of the Mini Dinobots, including two that weren't used (a Spinosaur/Scorn and a Brachiosaurus).
More concept art, of Megatron, Bumblebee and scenery.
Concept art of another Cybertronian Knight, as well as some debris of Cybertron.
And from TF2, concept ideas for Sideways, as a black Lamborghini instead of a silver Audi.
Concept art for Nitro Zeus, WW2 Hot Rod, and the battle on Cybertron.
Several more concept art on the website collider to promote the release of the movie on DVD/BR.
More concept art - some of Cybertron, and one is a samurai knight (maybe they weren't just going to just be medieval knights)
There seems to be no end to the movie concept art, with more of Steelbane (Knight) and Berzerker.
Concept art of the three DOTM Dreads, reworked for TF5... each with their allegiance symbol crossed out, like Armada Wheeljack (but this time it is suggested that they wouldn't actually be a part of either side.... and yet, they would still be just as dangerous).
More concept art, of Cybertronian Knights, King Arthur's round table, and the Vatti-Bot (Vatti is a Chinese company that makes electric ovens, so this was basically one of the many Chinese product placements in the movie - the bot didn't have an actual name, and looked like an insect that was with Daytrader, but promptly squashed by Bumblebee).
More concept art - Megatron breathing fire, Onslaught, and scenery from the crashed ship and Cybertron.
Some more highly detailed concept art (they should release a book of all of these), of Barricade (with classic cop shades), and the (not quite) dead knight that the toy Skullitron was probably based on.
More artwork of the dead knight (Skullitron)... but note that the dates on these are backwards, with the year first because tbey were by a Japanese artist.
Also a couple more proposed concept artworks for the giant snake we saw a little while back, as well as the backside of Barricade, and Merlin's tomb.
I'm so glad they didn't keep the cop shades for barricade, they look aweful.
Furio Tedeschi is South African.Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
Really? I had guessed that he was from Japan, since he has what sounded to me was a Japanese name. That's what you get for guessing I suppose.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Okay, maybe he just dates his images like computer files, so that they sort chronologically.