Tuesday, January 27, 2009

More Ask Orci Answers

Transformers, Star Trek, Fringe, Eagle Eye, etc writer Roberto Orci did a stop by his thread on the Don Murphy forums and covered a few topics about Transformers 2 including writing, editing, and being a fan boy.
would you say that di Bonaventura’s latest comment that there are “40-odd” robots is a gross exaggeration?
No.

Will the name "Spike" be uttered by anyone in TF2?
No.

if the decepticons are in fact mostly CGI, would that give you greater flexibility in terms of rewrites, or not? would it also mean that ILM can still tweak their designs even till now?
It does give us some freedom. We can even add a scene or two, if need be, which we are mulling over.

now that you've had chance to (hopefully!) devote more screen time to him, how do you feel about the character of Starscream?
He has a much more g1 feel, finally.

Are these scenes which add and help the plot? Serve the fanbase some fanboy goodness? Or are to help with the humor aspect?
Serve fan boy goodness. One of the scenes we're mulling over was Bay's idea, and he pitched it as, "you and the fans are gonna love this..."

Will the camera angles & editing be a bit more steady in TF2? In TF1, people often felt the scenes involving the actual Transformers, where too chopped up to get a clear idea of what's onscreen. I mean, imo the better martial arts movies employ static camera's and continuous editing ; not needing quick edit cuts and weird angles to hide any potential shortcoming. Similar principle would apply to Transformers onscreen, right?
Yes, quite often. (I second this, please end the constant redux of the Bourne movies style. Quantum of Solace's taking it to the nth degree to horrible effect should finally put that filming style to bed.)

do you consider yourself a fanboy and are there things that you get giddy and excited about seeing, that when Bay says "alright cool..lets do it" or when he suggests fanboyish ideas that you think to yourself... "fuck yeah...this is gonna be awesome" and do you have a backlog of fanboyish ideas sitting in the back of your mind incase a good opportunity arises?
I think I am half and half. When Bay pitches a cool idea, he can sometimes get my inner fan boy going, but my professional screenwriter mind has to remain critical and active. Weird balance. If I weren't in this profession, I would be all fan boy.

37 comments:

  1. I think there should be asked more interesting things from Orci. Everybody knows that Starscream's personality is like in G1. He is now Decepticon leader and because Megatron died. If he wants any revenge, he don't want any revenge for death of Megatron. He want it for destruction of the Allspark.

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  2. By the way, in The Reign Of Starscream, he tried to create a new one, but it failed. Though he and Thundercracker used data in Frenzy's data and sparks of Elita 1, Grindcore, Warpath and Signal Flare.

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  3. To the first Anonymous comment:

    Go register an account on TFW2005 and Don Murphy's forum and come up with more interesting questions if you feel like something is lacking.
    It's real easy to criticize others and not do jack shit about it yourself.

    Me myself get stuck on the following:

    would you say that di Bonaventura’s latest comment that there are “40-odd” robots is a gross exaggeration?
    No.

    So close to 40 robots will fight it out in this movie. That is just insane. One week to the trailer/teaser... one week....
    For one never interested in fake-football (real football is played with the feet, and is not called "soccer") I have never longed so much for the Superbowl before.

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  4. hehe, i feel ya strandh, ive never cared for superbowl, but this year i cant fucking wait!!

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  5. Let's hope all this is for the better =)

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  6. I thought they were pretty good ?'s considering that there is no way we could get some of the ?'s we want answered b/c they have been so secretive about what goes on in the movie...

    I'm a huge football fan but I can't stand the Arizona Cardinals so it's WAS gonna be a tougher Super Bowl to watch this year but since I'll be glued to the T.V. waiting for the RoF trailer it wont be so bad!

    40 robots? Man they are holding out big time on what robots are in this movie....

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  7. "40 robots? Man they are holding out big time on what robots are in this movie...."

    Well, you got 17 from the first movie. 5 Autobots, 7 Decepticons, 4 rougue or primal.

    Then you got the 17 rumored bots: Arcee(which is really 3 pc.), Twins, Sideswipe, Jolt, Jetfire, Soundwave, Ravage, 7 Constructicons, Fallen, Alice(Pretender).

    What about any Nest vehicles or those three wheeled motorbikes?

    That's close to forty, right?

    LET'S GO STEELERS!

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  8. there is no Megatron huh ?

    http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-movie-toys--products-30/new-clearer-images-of-the-revenge-of-the-fallen-bumblebeesam-witwicky-human-alliance-set-166679/

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  9. http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-movie-toys--products-30/new-clearer-images-of-the-revenge-of-the-fallen-bumblebeesam-witwicky-human-alliance-set-166679/

    And that is a proof to what...? That Hasbro can write/show whatever they want on the package, no matter if it is in the movie, or not, just to sale more toys?

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  10. no Megatron huh huh ? http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attachment.php?do=fullview&attachmentid=13296

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  11. 40 robots? Man they are holding out big time on what robots are in this movie...."

    Well, you got 17 from the first movie. 5 Autobots, 7 Decepticons, 4 rougue or primal.

    Then you got the 17 rumored bots: Arcee(which is really 3 pc.), Twins, Sideswipe, Jolt, Jetfire, Soundwave, Ravage, 7 Constructicons, Fallen, Alice(Pretender).

    What about any Nest vehicles or those three wheeled motorbikes?

    That's close to forty, right?

    If you really think the mountain dew transformer and the xbox 360 transformer are in the movie, you're a clown. Assuming there are 40 transformers, I would say Megs/Galvatron is obv. in there, but not being included. As for the remaining bots, maybe Teletraan 1, or a Cosmos. Some kind of autobot spy might be in order to see what's going on with screamer and his clan.

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  12. I'll have my DVR set for the superbowl so that if the commercial comes on and for some od reason, I miss it, I can rewind and view it again, and again, and again.

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  13. no Megatron huh huh ? http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/attachment.php?do=fullview&attachmentid=13296

    And that is a proof to what...? That Hasbro can write/show whatever they want on the package, no matter if it is in the movie, or not, just to sale more toys?

    Quit wetting your pants fanboys.

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  14. "If you really think the mountain dew transformer and the xbox 360 transformer are in the movie, you're a clown."

    Hey shithead, all I did was name all the ROBOTS in the first movie and the ROBOTS rumered in the second movie. Did you see the rouge robot transformers (Escalade/Xbox/M-Dew)get captured or killed? (Except for Nokia phone) So, they went somewhere right? So, since you are the expert, tell me what happened to them. Or S T F U.

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  15. If yall cant have a mature convo then dont type anything...

    I seriously doubt we will see Bumblebee fighting the Mt. Dew robot....

    I've said it before if Ravage and Soundwave are going to be in this movie then I dont see how Megatron could'nt show up as loyal as they are too him....

    But then again it's just my opinion

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  16. But Ratchet stepped on the mountain dew bot...

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  17. I've said it before if Ravage and Soundwave are going to be in this movie then I dont see how Megatron could'nt show up as loyal as they are too him....

    Just because you freakin G1 fanboys... Why does everything have to be the same like in G1? Why this movie can't be at least a liitle original?

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  18. I've said it before if Ravage and Soundwave are going to be in this movie then I dont see how Megatron could'nt show up as loyal as they are too him....

    Using your logic, Skywarp and Thudnercracker should be in the first movie, because if Starscream is there, how come they aren't?

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  19. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36635147

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  20. "Hey shithead, all I did was name all the ROBOTS in the first movie and the ROBOTS rumered in the second movie. Did you see the rouge robot transformers (Escalade/Xbox/M-Dew)get captured or killed? (Except for Nokia phone) So, they went somewhere right? So, since you are the expert, tell me what happened to them. Or S T F U."

    They were destroyed by the Autobots after they started attacking Sam. It's in the cannonical comics.

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  21. Just because you freakin G1 fanboys... Why does everything have to be the same like in G1? Why this movie can't be at least a liitle original?

    Using your logic, Skywarp and Thudnercracker should be in the first movie, because if Starscream is there, how come they aren't?

    It was'nt logic, I said it was just my opinion.... That does'nt mean that Megatron will be in the movie. I didnt see Ravage or Soundwave in the first movie and Megatron was in that one soooo I'm just saying with a bigger budget this time around maybe skywarp and thundercracker will be in this one even though neither one of them were as popular as soundwave and ravage....You guys really need to open a bit and realize that everyone is'nt going to share the exact same OPINION that you have...

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  22. "They were destroyed by the Autobots after they started attacking Sam. It's in the cannonical comics."

    There ya go. See? A simple answer to a simple question. Not, "Hey your a clown." Very good.

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  23. Forty robots sounds pretty ridiculous even to me, and it could be too much of a good thing. I don't know why everyone was complaining about the first film. They needed to ground the movie with human characters, so it made sense that the Transformers were secondary.n I hope they don't overdo it...

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  24. Did you guys see the commercial out with the Agent Simmons actor? I forget what it was for but it was cool to see him again. It got my anxiety going for some more TF2 news!

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  25. The question about cutting is stupid. Is not "Bourne editing" or some of that bullshit. Bay is Bay. Remember Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys 2 or The Island? He is not going to change now.

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  26. TF2 Spoilers

    There are no more than 30 robots who we meet and get to know however we may see others in flashbacks or in the Fallens army / Starscreams army and megatrons or soundwaves army!

    I am still annoyed there hasnt been any more new images from the film hopefully the trailer in the superbowl will reveal a good look at the film.

    If Megatron is even hinted at being in the film i will be so angry with micheal bay for saying his CGI form was only for comics and a toy mode!

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  27. "Anonymous said...
    Forty robots sounds pretty ridiculous even to me, and it could be too much of a good thing. I don't know why everyone was complaining about the first film. They needed to ground the movie with human characters, so it made sense that the Transformers were secondary.n I hope they don't overdo it..."

    I agree with you. With 40 robots, how many of them will have deep, complex character personalities that will actually be developed in the movie, huh? How many of them will be killed off in 27 seconds, like poor Jazz?

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  28. I think 40 robots would be freaking awesome!!!!

    Jazz messed with the wrong dude so he got fucked up!!! He was a pussy anyways......

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  29. "Jazz messed with the wrong dude so he got fucked up!!!"

    He'll be back, and ready to open a can.

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  30. I think 40 robots would be freaking awesome!!!!

    Jazz messed with the wrong dude so he got fucked up!!! He was a pussy anyways......


    The one, and only pussy you will ever see.

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  31. So what's the big deal having 40 robots this time? A lot will focus on the Decepticons that's for sure... Soundwave's army vs Starscream's army.

    Autobots will introduce some new faces... and so on & so forth. Chill...

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  32. I bet half of the 40 will be mostly in alt modes with a stupid 2 or 3 minute robot mode here and there. :(

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  33. I hope by making Starscream more "G1" like, that it doesn't mean he will be a whiny little idiot...

    That's one of the reasons I actually liked Movie Starscream was because of his personality in the books, comics, and even video games. He was serious, arrogant, and cunning without any of that BS lameness he was in G1.

    Animated Starscream has some G1 qualities in a good way, however. If Movie Starscream has qualities like that, then that's cool and I can live with that.

    I just don't want a really cool character to become some kind of comic relief or getting that irritating voice... *cringe*

    And 40 robots seems a little... much. How can they give every TF enough good screen time if they have so many robots? Unless they're just small designs like the phonebot and Xbox 360 bot. Maybe 40 robots are little extras taking over the world in some army.

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  34. FORTY robots?!!! Gawddayum!!!!! I wonder what kind of processor the guys at ILM use to render 40 something robots? How I would LOVE to be a fly-on-the-wall at ILM and Digital Domain (also since Digital Domain is working on the TRON sequel, TR2N, coming out in 2011). I also wonder if they're going to be able to properly develop them. What they may do is focus chiefly on a fraction of those 40 and develop them. It may be 40 for sure, since this sequel takes place around the world.

    As far as the posts dissing Jazz, let's not forget something: in one sequence from TF1 (which was lifted directly from TF:TM), Jazz rushed, in car mode, at Brawn, saying, "Come on, you Decepticon punk!!", then he transformed, and jumped on Brawn, as Brawn transformed. If someone was a wuss, would they charge at their enemy?? NO!!!!

    As far as the commercial with John Turturro (who played Agent Simmons) what was the commercial advertising? I still can't stop laughing my ass off at John for starring in that Stephen King flick where he was walking around saying, "You stole ma stow-rie!", ROFLMMFAO!!!!!

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  35. Jazz messed with the wrong dude so he got fucked up!!! He was a pussy anyways......

    Anonymous said... The one, and only pussy you will ever see.

    Does that even make sense?


    The reason they killed jazz off is b/c Bay and the writers thought that everyone would like him the most behind Optimus and they did'nt want that they wanted that slot to go to Bumblebee...

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  36. Jazz messed with the wrong dude so he got fucked up!!! He was a pussy anyways......

    Anonymous said... The one, and only pussy you will ever see.

    Does that even make sense?


    Yes.

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  37. As far as the commercial with John Turturro (who played Agent Simmons) what was the commercial advertising?

    I think it was Heiniken beer.

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