R.I.P. Roberto Orci 1973 - 2025

Writer and producer Roberto Orci died February 25 at the age of 51 after a battle with kidney disease. Orci along with his writing partner Alex Kurtzman co-wrote and produced Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek (2007), Star Trek Into Darkness jump starting those major franchises in the 21st century. 

Those were not the only movies as co-wrote The Island, The Legend of Zorro, Mission: Impossible III, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and more. On the television front, he got his start working on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, later writing for and producing Alias, Fringe, Transformers: Prime, Sleepy Hallow, Hawaii Five-O and more. 

His other producing projects including the Now You See Me movies, Scorpion tv show and more. If you are a bit of a geek, he probably was far more influential on your interests than even aware. 

“He was a visionary storyteller with a boundless heart and a beautiful soul,” Orci’s brother, J.R. Orci said to Deadline. “But beyond his creative talents, he was a compassionate friend who would put his life on hold to help a stranger and find room in his home for the most overlooked pup at the shelter.” 

Condolences to his friends and family on their loss.

Merry Christmas from Beast Wars' Garry Chalk and David Kaye

 Merry Christmas to all. The tradition continues as Beast Wars voice actors Garry Chalk (Optimus Primal) and David Kaye (Megatron) release their Christmas messages. The first is from Chalk with parody lyrics by Candice N. Santora and Chalk. He is currently undergoing treatment for Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma so sending him best wishes on his fight.  The jingles continue as Kaye does his own parody as he proposes a Christmas truce.

Transformers One Script Available

IndieWire has made the final script of Transformers One available to read. Written by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari, its an interesting way to find out how a movie script works and might see some differences between the script and what made it to screen. How much will be far less since how animated films are developed is different than live action films. 

Barrer and Ferrari said "From the moment we pitched the idea, our goal was to tell a story about the death of a best friendship that would have worked just as well if it were about humans. It was always ‘Stand by Me’ with Transformers. That touchstone helped us discover a whole new tone for the franchise. Every aspect of the storytelling and world-building boiled down to an effort to explore the humanity of these sentient robots in the first movie since 1986 to truly star them in the lead roles.”