Leonard Nimoy 1931-2015

Today marks the passing of an entertainment legend. Leonard Nimoy died this afternoon at the age of 83 at his home due to end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that the actor freely admits was probably caused by his years of smoking.

Transformers: DOTM Featurette Clips: Casting Sentinel, Chicago, Skydiving

The official twitter account for DOTM has posted three new clips (below) to promote the January 31st release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D Combo pack and Limited Edition Trilogy set. The first clip provides a look at the inspiration and casting for Sentinel Prime, more from filming in Chicago, and a look at the sky diving stuntmen. The clips and links to other released featurette clips below.

ATT-ATT | Sentinel Prime Design | Chicago Set Prep | 3D Effects

Leonard Nimoy Talks Dark of the Moon

For those paying attention to all the TV spots that have aired over the last week weeks, there is one character that has not been shown - Sentinel Prime. Bay's desire to keep the character a mystery has been a minor blessing for Leonard Nimoy who has been able to avoid all the press conferences and the like as he continues to do what is likely his final year of Star Trek Conventions. That didn't stop Big Fanboy from sitting down with the voice of Sentinel to find out how he scored to role (helps to be related to the director and have voiced Galvatron in the 1986 cartoon movie).

Nimoy Comments on Transformers 3 Casting

A little over a week ago Entertainment Weekly revealed that Leonard Nimoy was cast as the voice of Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. What the article lacked was comment from anyone associated with the production. That has now been corrected in the latest issue on newsstands now as Nimoy briefly comments on the "run" role and "complex" character. The article is reproduced below to avoid the eye strain of reading the picture.

Leonard Nimoy unretires for Transformers sequel

Leonard Nimoy knows this sounds a little illogical. After announcing his retirement last April in the wake of his Spock role in J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot and his guest turn on TV's Fringe, the 80-year-old actor has now signed on as the voice of long-lost Autobot leader Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. "I'm doing it! I'm doing it! I'm back-back after, what is it, 25 years or something?" says Nimoy, referring to his work as the voice of Galvatron in 1986's animated The Transformers: The Movie.

"I have been through many resurrections in my career," he says. "I have died and come back. I have left and come back. I've been canceled and come back. I did intend to not do any more work. And the fact is, I don't consider this work. This is great fun." Nimoy is also rumored to be the voice of the dragon Smaug in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, though he says only: "I have heard about that rumor, and that's all I know about it."

Nimoy has already recorded two sessions with Transformers director Michael Bay. "I don't think I'm very privy to any plot points, but I'm seeing some interesting footage." Asked to describe Sentinel Prime, Nimoy says, "Complex," and then "Why are you laughing?" Then he laughs too. -Anthony Breznican

Leonard Nimoy is the Voice of Sentinel Prime

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Leonard Nimoy is joining the voice cast of Transformers: Dark of the Moon as the voice of Sentinel Prime.

Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, has joined the film as the voice of Sentinel Prime, the predecessor of Optimus Prime whose wrecked body is seen in the teaser trailer, found crash-landed on the moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969. Later, after being brought to earth, he takes the disguise form of a fire engine in the movie’s massive, climactic battle through Chicago.

Nimoy is most famous for the role of Spock in Star Trek and might be familiar recently as William Bell in Fringe. This isn't his first foray into the world of Transformers as he voiced Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie.

The idea of Leonard Nimoy returning to the TF universe has been around for a few years now as many fans advocated him voicing a character in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Back in April 2009 Michael Bay was asked about this possibility and he responded, "[Nimoy] is married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin to me,” Michael explained, saying that he’s afraid of insulting his relative with the mere pittance allotted to pay his voice actors. “I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like ‘I can’t pay you that much? But would you do this voice?’" This was followed up a week later with Leonard Nimoy himself who simply said that Bay had to just ask.

Apparently has asked and Nimoy has accepted. Even better it seems the character of Sentinel Prime is a rather important one in DOTM so it might just be a few lines like it might have been if Bay had tried to get him for Revenge. EW tends to be right on the mark with their reports but since no one official with the movie is quoted, I have very slight reservations. I hope Bay comments on his forum confirming this news soon. Thanks to GundamFan89, Chris, Sean and Ryan for the heads-up.

War for Cybertron With More Nimoy? (Updated)

Update: Activision, distributor of W4C, is reporting the casting information below is false, so it appears that Leonard Nimoy is not rejoining the Transformers universe.

We just wanted to let you know that the rumor you posted regarding the voice actors in Transformers: War for Cybertron is false. We will be providing additional information on voice actors soon. The only confirmed voice actor is Peter Cullen at this time.

Original article:
In a preview of Transformers: War for Cybertron, AusGamers.com listed a few names as voice actors for the upcoming game including an actor that has not visited the Transformers-verse in about 25 years.

Some familiar voices were being thrown about the demo, including Peter Cullin as Optimus Prime. Starscream sounded spot on, however, he's not voiced by Chris Latta, but rather Doug Parker. Megatron is voiced by James Remar with Leonard Nimoy coming in to flesh out Zeta Prime, among a host of other well-known voice actors.

Leonard Nimoy is probably most known as Spock in Star Trek but he also voice Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie and makes occasional guest appearances on Fringe. His most recent video game work was reprising Spock to narrate the opening of Star Trek Online. Zeta Prime is the leader of the Autobots when the game opens, at least until he has a confrontation with Megatron.

In addition, new screenshots of the game have popped up on Netherland's website Inside Gamer that includes a potential look at Shockwave and Starscream's Cybertronian jet mode, Their gallery of images can be found here.

Last bit of War for Cybertron news is related to the upcoming toy line. Click here to view the packaging, complete with bios, for W4C Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. The bio for Bumblebee doesn't reveal much but apparently the game designers took a page from the movie as 'Bee no longer is able to talk, making him a "silent warrior" and "fearless infiltrator of enemy lines."

If the bios are not enough, there is also a sizeable gallery of W4C Optimus Prime that shows off his robot and vehicle mode from multiple angles. Can't say I am a fan of the vehicle mode but I do like the robot mode. That gallery can be found here.

Nimoy to Bay: Just Ask

Last week, Michael Bay indicated he is open to casting Leonard Nimoy as a voice in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but "I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like ‘I can’t pay you that much? But would you do this voice?" and maybe use his mother as a go between.

Today, IESB asked Nimoy if he would be willing to do a voice in the movie. Sadly a video of the exchange could not be posted due to a press embargo on Star Trek stuff in the states until May 7th. This is usually done by the studios so that there is a huge amount of talk about the movie before the critical opening weekend and most sites are not going to breach it for fear of losing access. It is also a way to contain bad reviews but that isn't an issue in this case as Star Trek reviews have been glowing.

I am paraphrasing our conversation. Nimoy was in a great mood, laughing and having a good time and said he would be perfectly willing to do a voice in the Transformers sequel, all Michael has to do is ask - but has he?

IESB asked Nimoy straight out if Michael Bay has contacted him yet regarding the voice work, Bay has said he may use his mother as a go between if need be.

Nimoy said he had just seen Bay's mother and she didn't say anything. He doesn't think she wants to be the go between. Nimoy said that he's not hard to get ahold of, if Michael wants to get ahold of him, he can.

Since it is voice work which can be done in a day or so under experienced hands, Bay still has plenty of time to cast who he wants when he wants. Of course with the world premiere now schedule just six weeks away the clock is ticking.

Bay Talks Potential Nimoy Casting

MTV once again, this time talking to Transformers 2 director Michael Bay about voice casting, specifically casting his cousin, Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek's Spock) in the sequel.

“I’m still not done with all the voices,” Bay explained to us recently when we brought up “Revenge of the Fallen” robot casting for the film.

As loyal fans of the robots-in-disguise remember, Mr. Spock himself - Leonard Nimoy - was the voice of characters like Galvatron in the 1986 cartoon “Transformers: The Movie.” And “Revenge” writer Roberto Orci has said that he’d like to see Nimoy return for the summer blockbuster.

“You know, he’s related to me,” laughed Bay. “And now that you are filming this, maybe you can send it to him.”

“[Nimoy] is married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin to me,” Michael explained, saying that he’s afraid of insulting his relative with the mere pittance allotted to pay his voice actors. “I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like ‘I can’t pay you that much? But would you do this voice?’”

So Michael hasn’t worked up the nerve yet to ask his famous cousin – who appears in next month’s “Star Trek” – to lend him his vocal talents. Instead, the pair have been using a third relative as a go-between.

“Would he do it?” Bay asked. “He suggested to my mom that he might do it.”

Orci and Kurtzman Talk Transformers

Sci-Fi Wire has posted a brief interview with Transformers writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen using many of Orci's recent Q&A responses to attempt to get more detail. I am guessing this an add-on of the much longer Star Trek interview the website has posted earlier in the week. Thanks to middlerealm for the link.

Below are select portions with the full article here.

You guys were not originally going to write the sequel. Is that right?Orci: Correct.

What changed your mind?
Kurtzman: Well, we resisted it for a while, because ... the first movie was so ... tough to find, you know? ...the story was not immediately obvious to us. And ... they really wanted us to do it. And we said, "We just can't do it until we know what this is." ...We spent a lot of time thinking about the sequels that we really loved as kids. You know, Aliens and Terminator 2 and Wrath of Khan and Empire Strikes Back and Superman 2. The thing that all of those movies had in common were that they stood on their own as films.
Orci: Yeah, it was both that and we were afraid we were not going to have literally the time to do it. The [writers'] strike was looming, we were in the middle of [writing] Star Trek, etc. So when they agreed to give us help in the form of Ehren Kruger [The Skeleton Key, The Ring 2], who is fantastic, we realized the three of us really could do it and not just phone it in.

And you had a mandate to develop a bigger movie?
Kurtzman: That doesn't really mean anything to us, honestly. Like, we always get to the action last. The action is born of whatever challenges your characters are facing...
Orci: The theme started coming out of Sam leaving home, now. It's two years later, he's going to college. ... What are the responsibilities and the cutting off that goes on when you leave home? And that mirrors the fact the Transformers themselves are away from home. And in a new home. And what are your responsibilities as you kind of step out into the world on your own without your support system? ...

There are so many [Transformers] that you have to pick from. How do you winnow them down, how do you add the new ones, integrate them?
Orci: Well, the easier one, obviously, is the fact that we inherit certain ones from the previous movie and from the fact that Prime and Bumblebee are kind of the two front-and-center relationships. ... In terms of villains, it was again going back to all the source material. ... We got a bunch of the comics again, we got a bunch of the old cartoons, and just started looking for kind of the most elemental bad guy that kind of jumped off the material, and we found one in the Fallen.

And you've got to bring Megatron back.
Orci: Exactly. ...But then many of them were also selected during the strike while we couldn't do anything, as a matter of necessity, by Hasbro and by [director] Michael Bay for some of the action sequences. They literally had to start designing somebody.

What's the name of the gigantic first one that you see?
Kurtzman: Wheelbot. ... (Temp name for Demolisher from call sheets)

Jetfire, RC, Mudflap on the Autobot side?
Orci: Yeah, right. Jetfire was in the treatment. Mudflap might have been one of those in-betweeners. ...

On the Decepticon side, Starscream, Soundwave, the Fallen and then the Constructicons, which are several different ones: Demolisher, Hightower, Long Haul, Mixmaster, Rampage and Scrapper?
Orci: That's them.

So they're all there?
Orci: Yeah.

There's still more, right? I mean, there's others?
Orci: There are. ...

You've got a girl robot for the first time, Arcee. Do you ever deal with why she's a girl robot, or is that just one of those things?
Orci: We may still, as we go through and see the final finals, but we've gone back and forth on that. ... Some of the fans debating, "Oh, man, if there's some lame explanation I'm going to hate it" versus "They'd better explain it." So. We'll see how it ends up. We honestly have things in our back pocket; we'll see which one works better.

And you, Bob, were quoted as saying you were trying to get Leonard Nimoy to do the Fallen?
Orci: He originally was the voice in the animated movie, and at one of the conventions, Alex and I actually spoke to him about it, and he's like, "Yeah, I'd be open to that." But it'll be Michael's decision.

Have you talked with Michael about that?
Orci: Oh, sure. ... He's like, "Hmm." And we're like, "You know you're cousins, right?" [Nimoy's wife is Michael Bay's cousin.]

There was also some talk about Frank Welker, the original voice of Megatron, and whether he'd actually end up in the movie after all?
Orci: Exactly, and I think they're in the middle of hashing that out. We'll see who we get.

Ask Orci: Nimoy Voicing A Transformers 2 Character?

Time for another summary of Transformers writer Roberto Orci's Q&A threads on the Don Murphy and TFW2005 forums. It is about two weeks worth of answers and covers early plans for Transformers I, mostly cryptic comments on Transformers 2 story lines, will the writers return for Transformers 3 and potential voice for The Fallen. My comments are in parenthesis.

Will Barricade's disappearance be explained in ROTF?
Explained is a very specific kinda word... implied may be more like it

Will you guys seriously rethink about staying on?
Time for fresh blood!

Just to be clear, what is your reason for not writing it? If the other main players comes back and they don't see a need for fresh blood, then why would you?
Not clear who is coming back yet, but the main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We'll see.
(It should be noted that Orci and Alex Kurtzman both indicated they would not return to write Transformers 2. TF3 is three years away so plenty of time to change their mind again. Honestly, usually this kind of talk in Hollywood translates to "how much will you pay me to return?" as don't want to appear to eager.)

who thought of the name for the movie? you, michael bay, alex, or someone else?
Alex.

how many fans do you think saw past Michael's "no Megatron" announcement? And second, is he aware that his comment about Megs only appearing in a flashback kind of contradicts Hugo Weaving's hint that the Allspark shard has something to do with Megatron's resurrection?
god love him
(Probably good idea to not answer directly.)

Did the fallen enslave the Egyptians to build the pyramids (which actually are space bridges)?
Hmm. Getting warm

Did the Egyptians seal the fallen within his own design?
Also very warm but not quite.

Did you ever intend for Blackout and Brawl to speak?
Yes.

Would you consider a giant battle in the Grand Canyon?
We actually had a giant battle in the Grand Canyon in the very first draft of the first movie.

Is there really still time to add stuff and how much stuff can be added at this point?
On the first movie, we were re-writing dialogue until about 2 weeks before release!

can you let us know how many Autobots can fly in the movie?
very few
(So basically 1 or more. My guess is only 1 and that is Jetfire.)

I know very early in development Mike Bay said that there would be a geriatric robot. Was it already set there and then that Jetfre would be that bot, or did you and the writers/Bay decide later that Jetfire would suit that type of character?
We decided Jetfire would fit after the idea came up to have a geriatric robot.

Would you consider this movie the "Empire Strikes Back" of the Transformer movie line (dark, feeling of hopelessness, crazy reveal/twists/turns)?
yes

Bay mentioned in passing that about 40 bots are in the movie. Sound about right or less/more?
sounds about right

Will The Fallen have any dialogue?
Yes.

Can you name the 3 scenes that were filmed in IMAX format?
Yes.
(The danger of asking closed questions.)

Will Prime survive the movie?
Prime's spirit can never die.
(Nice non-answer, no details but gives a sense of impending doom for Prime).

Did you decide to not have Megatron renamed Galvatron for the general audience?
yes.

Similarly, did you intend Sideways (Audi R8) to be Barricade?
We'll see

which of the 2 movies was more difficult to get along with the story.
Movie 1 was the hardest thing have ever worked on. Period. Nobody could imagine what it was, everyone thought it was just a silly cartoon or a toy commercial, the studio wasn't sure if the robots should talk, we had to come up with a story that would attract someone like Bay, and we had budgetary constraints that made it necessary to generate a significant human story which was counterintuitive to some Transfans. By the second movie, the paradigm of the franchise was clear.

what are your feelings towards the idea of Leonard Nimoy doing the voice of the Fallen?
Would love it. I actually talked to him about it, given the odd coincidence that he is Michael Bay's cousin through marriage, but fan outcry has also put Welker in the running.
(Who to support? Quite a conundrum for Transfans. Nimoy is the iconic Spock of Star Trek and part of Transformers past as the voice of Galvatron (and Unicron) for 1986's Transformers: The Movie while Welker is was the voice of Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave and many others.)