Bumblebee Producer Comments on Movie

In an interview with Den of Geek, Transformers movie franchise producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura spoke briefly about the Bumblebee movie. Nothing really new was revealed except the movie is set in 1987 (not 1985 like I had seen spoke of before). As for Transformers 6 he thought there would be one and "I think we need to change it up" but its too early for them to plan TF6, that likely will not start until next year.

“We are starting to shoot a week from today [7/26]. We had decided to do this well before (The Last Knight) had come out. Our feeling was that we wanted to give the audience a different experience. Bumblebee's designed to be a more intimate movie. There's many fewer Transformers in it. It's set in 1987, so it actually predates all of Michael's movies and therefore is not burdened by the history of those, 'cause it predates it. You have a certain amount of creative freedom.”

“I think Bumblebee is an incredibly loved character. You pick (director) Travis Knight for a very specific reason. His movies are pretty extraordinary, Kubo and the Two Strings in particular. What we're trying to do is deliver, a love story may be too strong of a term, but it is a coming of age for Bumblebee and our lead character, Hailee Steinfeld. The two of them, their job in the movie is to support each other to get to the place where they both fully realize who they are in that moment. It's a very different kind of story. That plot is there, but it's very muted, relative to the larger Transformers movies.”

On if will be a TF6: “Yeah, I think so. I do. Look, it was a great run. I think going forward, we learned some lessons and I think we need to change it up. I think Michael (Bay, director of all five Transformers films) would be the first one to say that. It's one of the reasons why we were trying to bring in the Arthurian myth, in fact, in (The Last Knight), to create that different sense of what that movie's about. I think we were successful in that way, but obviously not in the box office.”

HasCon Exclusive Toys Includes Transforming USB Power Bank

HasCon is coming from September 8-10 in Providence, Rhode Island. Like many conventions that means exclusives. For this years convention Hasbro has announced multiple exclusives from Transformers, Star Wars and more. The main Transformers exclusive toy is the Optimus Prime Converting Power Bank for $50. The 6500mAH bank actually works to charge USB devices like phones and tablets. They also have an early release of Generations Titans Return Arcee (that I think is a repaint of Blurr) and a three card Magic: The Gathering set that includes "Grimlock, Dinobot Leader" for $30.

If curious the card gives you Grimlock attacking 4/4 unit and the description says "Dinosaurs, Vehicles, and other Transformers creatures you control get +2/+0. (for 2 mana) Convert a Transformers toy you own to its other mode: Grimlock, Dinobot Leader becomes Grimlock, Ferocious King. (quote:) Me Grimlock no like you." Based on description of this and other two cards, they could be played in Magic games but it seems Grimlock came up short on being worth using.

Bumblebee Movie Budget, New Castmember

Deadline is reporting that Pamela Adlon (Better Things, Californication) has joined the cast of the Bumblebee movie. She was just nominated for Best Comedy Series Actress Emmy. She will play the mom to Hailee Steinfeld's character.

As for the budget of the Bumblebee movie, it has been known that Paramount was going for a much cheaper film then the ~$200 average of the Bay movies. I and others assumed that meant in the $100 million area. Turns out its even cheaper with a budget of $70 million according to The Hollywood Reporter. In general reported budgets do not include any tax credits and the like so do not think this includes the $22 million tax credit the movie is getting from California. Basically everything would have to go horribly wrong for this movie to not be considered profitable so that should extend the film life of the movie franchise.

Transformers at SDCC 2017

Hasbro kept most of their cards close as they are prepping for Hascon in September 2017 but they did show off a little bit of new stuff while at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con this weekend. Not really a whole lot of news. IDW briefly mentioned that they are working Transformers: Unicron comic for 2018 release. That is it. No artwork, no details on story, setting (movie-verse? comic-verse?), creative team or even if mini-series or ongoing. Just the tease. Maybe more will be revealed at Hascon. Sideshow Collectibles showed off Beast Wars Megatron that looks freaking awesome but if priced like other Prime 1 statues is in the $900+ price range. As for toys, hit the links below for videos and images to learn about Power of the Primes. Since its Comic-Con, also check out the video below of a fantastic cosplay of G1 Megatron.

The followup to Titans Return will be called Power of the Primes. This one is focused on the godlike power of the Primes including different matrixes and use of armor to increase the bulk or change a character. For example Hot Rod becomes Rodimus Prime by folding him into his trailer. Its a gimmick that 3rd party makers have been using for a while. The line is best explained in the video below. When done well it can be pretty cool even if seems slightly parts-forming. There are a still a few Transformers 5 toys to come like Cogman, Nitro and another Bumblebee but the overall impression seems to be that Hasbro is already moving on from the movie line (personally I can barely find new Transformers toys in stores as it is).

Galleries: Official Images | Hasbro Booth I | Hasbro Booth II | Hasbro Panel Images

Booth Videos: Titans Return | The Last Knight | Diorama | RID & Rescue Bots | BW Megatron Statue

Titans Return Cartoon Adds Cullen, Nelson, and Others

I pretty much forgot this existed but Variety is reporting that Hasbro has hired new casters members for Transformers: Titans Return. Machinima is reporting that the first series generated 135 million views (curious how that breaks down by region and platform). The plan is for 10 episodes of around 11 minutes each (so almost triple in length of first season) for Titans Return. I didn't put it together until Kotaku put it together but Machinma cast "Youtube Influencers" to help drive traffic to the first season and continuing that for the second. For the not mid-20s and under crowd these are sorta famous people within the niche that is YouTube. Very useful for driving traffic to other online videos, probably would accomplish nothing if trying to drive traffic for typical Hollywood movies or TV series.

Actors:
- Peter Cullen - Optimus Prime
- Judd Nelson - Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (yep same guy that voiced Hot Rod in 1986 animated movie)
- Nolan North - Metroplex (done a ton of video game voices)
- Wil Wheaton - Perceptor (guy from Star Trek: The Next Generation)
- Jason David Frank - Emissary (yep one of the original Power Rangers)

YouTube "influencer" cast:
- MatPat (COMPUTRON): YouTube influencer and creator of the web series Game Theorist, Film Theorist, GT Live and MatPat’s Game Lab.
- DashieGames (MENASOR): Popular YouTube gamer with more than 6 million subscribers.
- Rob Dyke (DEVASTATOR): YouTube influencer best known for Seriously Strange.
- Tay Zonday (CHORUS OF THE PRIMES): Viral and award winning YouTube sensation known for his ‘Chocolate Rain’ video
- Abby Trott (WINDBLADE): Voice over actress with credits including video games Halo Wars 2 and Killer Instinct
- Lana McKissack (MISTRESS OF FLAME): An actor and YouTube vlogger
- Frank Todaro (STARSCREAM): Voice over actor with credits including video game franchise LittleBigPlanet
- Jason Marnocha (MEGATRON) Actor from Bat In the Sun’s popular YouTube series Super Power Beat Down

The series will premiere in November on go90.com.

More Transformers 5 Concept Art

If you are interested, ILM posted some new concept art from Transformers: The Last Knight with an emphasis on Quintessa, Drift, and Bulldog. I couldn't find it on their site but TFW2005 mirrored it.

Four More Join Bumblebee Movie Cast

The Bumblebee Movie adds four new cast mates to join Hailee Steinfeld and Jorge Lendeborg Jr in the 1985-ish set movie. Joining the film are Abby Quinn (~18yo, Landline), Gracie Dzienny (21, Zoo), Rachel Crow (~18yo, Home: Adventures of Tip & Oh), Jason Drucker (~11yo, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul). I guess Nickelodeon fans would recognize them but drawing nothing but blanks for me.

No details on the what roles anyone will be playing but since producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura compared the Bumblebee movie script to a John Hughes movie from the 1980s (aka rich white teenager love problems) only minus the "rich" part since Steinfeld is playing an after school mechanic. Since Paramount is being pointlessly secretive about character names and roles that leaves the door open for me to make random guesses based on how casting and story decisions where made for similar "John Hughes" type movies made in the 1980s to 1990s. So my guess on their roles is "annoying brother" (Drucker), "quirky best friend" (Crow), "normal but sarcastic friend" (Quinn), and "mean hot girl" she wants to be (Dzienny).

I actually have some good hopes for this movie. Bumblebee director Travis Knight's Kudo and the Two Strings was great and showed promise in telling a classic "old school" type story in a 21st century so as long as Christina Hodson's (Shut In) script is solid, there is nothing but potential here. The IDW comics especially have shown that under the right hands, the Transformers franchise can fit into pretty much any genre out there including possible romantic high school comedy. Its just a matter of story and execution which we will find out when the movie is released on June 8, 2018.

Transformers: The Last Knight Concept Art

Transformers: The Last Knight artist, along with long time Transformers franchise artist Josh Nizzi and A. Kozhanov, posted some of his concept art from the movie on his Facebook page. I am really digging his take on Bumblebee. Sadly his version was a non-starter as the Chevy partnership would prevent its use. Chevy would demand it look recognizable as a Camaro and specifically like one they may later sell to the public. Sometimes we forget that that for the car companies, the Transformers movies are really just long form car commercials. You can find the full gallery at TFW2005.com.

Jorge Lendeborg Jr Joins Bumblebee Movie

Paramount announced that Jorge Lendeborg Jr has joined the Bumblebee movie as the male lead. The new actor's only other major role was in Spider-Man: Homecoming as Jason (I don't even recall him in that movie so not sure if had a spoken line or not). The exact nature of the role is unknown but considering the franchise's history of inserting romance elements into a story that doesn't need them, I suspect he will play a love interest to Hailee Steinfeld's mechanic character. Other then being set in 1985, not a while lot else is known about the movie which will be directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings).

Bumblebee Movie Scores $22 Million Credit

The LA Times is reporting that Transformers' Bumblebee movie scored a $22 million credit to film the entire movie in California. While the budget for the Bumblebee movie is currently unknown, its supposed to be "significantly" less then the Bay films (which avg. ~$200 million each) so my guess is around $120M or less. This kind of credit goes towards the cost of the film but not its reported "cost". So if the final budget is reported at say $100M then its true cost would be $78 based on this credit. Also keep in mind this is a tax credit, not a cut. A cut basically says "while you don't have to, here is X dollars back, pretty please with a cherry on top spend this money." A credit says "you must spend Y dollars here and we will give you back X dollars back." So its in Paramount's interest to maximize that money buy spending whatever minimum they committed to in California so if hear about them filming elsewhere be suspicious.

This credit should also have relieve some of the stress that the Bumblebee film will have to succeed after the perceived commercial "failure" of Transformers: The Dark Knight. While TF5's half billion take is great, Paramount was shooting for $1 billion and so it failed to meet expectations. On the other hand, that same take from the Bumblebee movie would probably be considered outstanding by the group of executives as their expectations for this film (due to its production costs) has been adjusted much lower. From a pure numbers perspective it doesn't make any sense but expectations about dollar amounts is basically how Wall Street runs as does Hollywood.

Transformers 5 Week Three Box Office

To no surprise Spider-Man: Homecoming took the number one slot worldwide with a very good box office weekend ($120M US, $140 I'tnl) so if Transformers: The Last Knight release had gone as planned it would have dropped to number two. Instead it was number five with $6.3M US and $18.1M internationally for a total worldwide take of $495M. Not helping was theater chains (at least in US) collectively deciding to drop the IMAX 3D showing of the movie and replace them with Spider-Man so your chance to see in that format is done after only two weeks. Considering the drops in screens, I can't help but wonder if the movie might leave theaters by the end of the month.

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $118,916,760 24.0%
+ Foreign: $375,700,000 76.0%
= Worldwide: $494,616,760

Transformers 5 Week Two Box Office

I was waiting to see what the numbers would be including the holidays but didn't really see much that mattered. The short of it all is Transformers: The Last Knight didn't really benefit from the holiday weekend in the States. As expected, the movie took a significant drop (62%) for $17 million resulting in a 3rd place behind Despicable Me 3 and Baby Driver. Internationally it added a nice $68M for a modest ~55% drop from the previous weekend once again showing that the films really are not made with the American box office in mind. So as of today the film is sitting at $448.6M.

So far my guess-timate of a $625M total seems about right. Now most other movies would love these numbers as would all but guarantee a sequel. However Paramount was expecting much more (close to or past $1 billion total box office) so it will be interesting how they respond to executive disappointment (always fear executive disappointment, a lot of franchises ground to a halt from this). Shrug it off as an inevitable bump of any franchise (most don't make it to five films after all) and stay the course? Over-correct? Under-correct? To be a bug on that Transformers wall.

Domestic: $109,158,195 24.3%
+ Foreign: $339,413,539 75.7%
= Worldwide: $448,571,734

China's Transformers 5 Two Extra Minutes for Product Placement

A few weeks before release it was discovered that the China version of Transformers: The Last Knight had a two extra minutes of footage. Thanks to an article from The Hollywood Reporter, we now know that the reason was for product placement. Really bad product placement that caused unintended laughs in China theaters. Hopefully the deleted scenes will be included on the digital and Blu-ray releases so the rest of the world can enjoy the jokes.

...throughout the film, the intentionally comedic moments don't seem to elicit much reaction from the crowd. Instead, their biggest laughs are almost universally reserved for the moments of blatant product placement by Chinese companies.

With the audience quickly learning to play spot-the-brand, giggles start rising in the cinema as the Chinese dairy drink Mengniu makes an appearance at Mark Wahlberg's very-much-in-America scrap yard. Smartphones from LeEco, the financially strapped Chinese tech company, appear to be the brand of choice in the film. And the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is for some reason everywhere. The biggest laugh, however, arrives at the most unsubtle piece of pandering: the moment when the Autobots and their American friends are looking up 'car porn' on a Chinese used-car website.

HasCon's Transformers, Rest of Schedule Revealed

Coming this September 8-10 in Providence, RI near Hasbro HQ is their replacement for Botcon. Called HasCon, the family friendly convention is designed to celebrate (and sell) all things Hasbro. Like any good convention that means fans get to go to panels to discuss the behind the scenes and stories related to the creation of their favorite toy from the company, including Transformers. Click for the entire convention schedule.