Transformers Movie Related News on Seibertron.com

Takara to make a TF CGI movie?

Date: Saturday, December 18th 2004 2:20am CST
Categories: Cartoon News, Movie Related News, Rumors
Posted by: Big Grim | Credit(s): XBoB58, Tfans.com, Fuyoh.net

Permanent Link
Views: 76,992

Tfans pointed out a report by Fuyoh.net which mentions that Takara may be thinking of of creating a CGI Transformers movie.
Here is the snippet of the report focusing on Transformers:

Transformers fans will no doubt be heartened by the company’s strong focus on the line. This is hardly surprising since Transformers racked up 2,338 million yen in sales for the six months ending September 2004 making it Takara’s second-biggest hit in the Boys’ Toys Division after Duel Masters.

In one little-reported move, Takara is also working with Micott and Basara, Inc to produce a CG Transformers movie for Japan and abroad in 2006. This is apparently a separate project from the Dreamworks-helmed movie. However, I couldn’t find additional details on the web aside from the mention in Takara’s 2004 annual report and there’s no mention of it on Micott and Basara’s web site.

See the full report here.

TF Movie Screenwriter John Rogers Speaks out

Date: Tuesday, November 30th 2004 10:44pm CST
Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: Alex Kingdom | Credit(s): DonMurphy.net, TFormers.com

Permanent Link
Views: 73,228

Screenwriter of the up coming new Transfomers Movie John Rogers has posted for the first time on Don Murphy Message Board. He talks about Spielberg, Furman, hints at characters, Decepticon shapeshifters, Human characters and talks about size-shifting.

Now, to throw you ravenous jackals some marrow. What little marrow I can without ticking off the powers-that-be. Some random stuff, with a few obscure clues for you to chew over:

Yes, Mr. Spielberg is very involved in the movie. He pitched out a couple very cool ideas during the development of the story. It's a huge frikkin' honor to be working for him, and know he takes this project very seriously.

G1. G1. G1. Period. Finito.

Size-shifting is an integral part of the movie, but basically on a scale that'll allow the transformations from earth-disguise vehicle forms to robot to make sense. Some of the power-scales of the Transformer megaweaponry here in my Simon Furman-penned guide sitting next to my computer would be a little ridiculous in a live-action movie. But I want big robots. You want big robots. We'll have some very big robots. And they will fight. I'm writing big-robot-fights. There are some days my job couldn't get cooler.

Ark? Check. Cybertron? Check. Energon Matrix? Check plus, actually. Think more about what it means in the greater sense of Transformer identity and sentience. We won't mention Primus, but that points you in the direction of why the Autobots and Decepticons want it, more than just a leadership squabble. As in: "Spark."

As to who's showing up -- If you want real, well-defined characters, we need to spend more time on the personalities of each Transformer as a charcter. Autobot faction, Decepticon faction, and humans, they all need to come across as real, um, "people." So, much like the X-Men model, a tight focus on a few leads, with an expansion in the possible second and third movie to a bigger roster.

Having said that, why wouldn't I want a cool shapeshifting spy Decepticon? Although, you know, cassettes are so passe ... I think he'd adapt a bit more ...

Freedom IS the right of every sentient being.

Who's the coolest two-seater high octane brother? I'm asking you.

And one small change -- from ambulance to fire truck. Fire truck's more interesting on-screen and to watch transform, and they're both emblematic of his personality, so I think you guys will forgive me. Or at least, I'm asking you to right now.

(this is representative of the only changes we're allowing in the movie from mythology. When we change something, we have to keep the spirit of the original intact. Don't worry, Tom and Don are breathing down my neck constantly ...)

Witwicky -- check. Witiwicky girlfriend -- modified check. Human characters in general -- like most of you have noted, not exactly the strongest factor in the original cartoon. So a lot of new ones, but they'll be vaguely familiar to fans.

No little kid sidekicks.

There will be Easter Eggs.

Some of the Decepticons don't seem that bright. Some are an absolute scream.

Megatron as a gun -- not going to happen, for the stated reasons. Alternate forms of 'Bots than just the two ... could be.

Well, that ought to keep you busy arguing among yourselves for a while. I'll check back in later this month, see ho things are going.

Thanks for all the support and interest,

john

Read the whole thread here look for 'jonrog1'

Don Murphy addresses Movie rumours

Date: Monday, November 29th 2004 10:58pm CST
Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: Alex Kingdom | Credit(s): DonMurphy.net

Permanent Link
Views: 38,827

Don Murphy has posted an update on the Don Murphy Message Board, Addressing the rumoured involvement of Peter Cullen and Frank Weller. Plus he talks about a possible solution to the 'mass/size shift' problem making smaller alt-modes unlikley to appear in the film.

Remember - everything you post is read (at least by me) and when there seems to be a consensus it will be addressed if at all possible.

For example, a huge amount of fans want Cullen and Welker. While the truth is (no matter what you read anywhere else) that no one has been approached to do ANY voices (the process of filmmaking will make that the final decision of the director) it is something that has been heard and will be addressed when the time comes.

I can't go into where the story is going, only to say John is great and I have invited him on to the board.

And to put an end to a controversy that I never understood, I am pleased to tell you that John HAS come up with a plausible explanation that will allow some of the bots to mass/size shift.

This was important to a lot of you and I wanted you to know you have been heard.

Will it work? Will it be any good? Will it make it on to the screen? Who the hell knows?

The only thing I know for sure is we're trying here.

Read the whole thread on Don Murphys board here.

More Don Murphy updates

Date: Tuesday, November 16th 2004 6:08pm CST
Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: Raymond T. | Credit(s): www.donmurphy.net

Permanent Link
Views: 38,454

Don Murphy decided to post some more stuff on his board. With his most recent post, the producer of the up coming Transformers movie helped disspel some recent rumors that have been flying around, about possible directors of the Transformers movie and about the Real Steel movie, which will also be produced by Murphy.

There is no director for Transformers.
So no one is OUT of the running.

REAL STEEL is based on the Richard Matheson story STEEL. It is a development deal. Maybe it will be a movie someday.

Mostow knows about Transformers. He is NOT the director. And he's NOT not the director.

Zemeckis toyed with the idea but DID pass.

We are pursuing some big guns as we speak.

More Movie Tidbits From Don Murphy

Date: Monday, November 15th 2004 3:15pm CST
Category: Movie Related News

Permanent Link
Views: 51,147

Don Murphy has been rather active on his Transformers forum over the last couple of days, dropping several hints about the upcoming Transformers movie. Here's some quotes from the man himself:

"I want to point out again- if ALL we wanted were robots smasking shit we would be doing this all CGI or mo cap or 2D.
This is going to be an event LIVE ACTION film in which HUMANS are a significant component."


"There will be several human characters.
And several Autobots.
And several Decepticons.

Thus only a FEW of each will get screen time to be fully developed.
They all could appear, but like Wolverine, only a few will be prominent."


In response to a question on Don's previous comment of there being 7 core characters:

"7 is still in play, but again, number 7 might have minmal emphasis- think Iceman in part 1"


In response to a question regarding whether the Transformers are from Cybertron or not:

"They come from Cybertron
They are not man made
They are here because we have the matrix (probably can't call it that anymore)"


"Of course you can always make it (the movie) about just the TFs- just not in a live actions summer event film."


In response to a comment regarding the possibility of film that features only Transformers, and how they interact with one another, discuss, plot, dream etc:

"Well for clarity you are NOT going to get a CG animated film in which the TFS do all that. Or rather, I believe Paramount is releasing a direct to video film of that very thing."

Transformers movie shooting schedule?

Date: Tuesday, November 9th 2004 6:19pm CST
Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: Raymond T. | Credit(s): www.donmurphy.net

Permanent Link
Views: 44,161

Another hint about the production of the upcoming Transformers movie has come our way. On his board Don Murphy answered a question about the basic schedule for the upcoming movie. The producer had the following to say in that particular thread.

Screenwriter By end of October 04
First Draft by Feb 05
Director by March 05
Shooting Script by May 05
Prep starts April O5
Shooting starts July 05
Editing starts November 05

But all this shit is ROUGH, verily.

We got the first thing done anyway.

Another rumor that Mostow might direct

Date: Monday, November 8th 2004 7:18pm CST
Categories: Movie Related News, Rumors
Posted by: Raymond T.

Permanent Link
Views: 44,545

A rumor has come my way about the movie that people may be interested to hear. A while back Producer of the upcoming movie, Don Murphy had already said that he would love to have Jonathan Mostow to take a seat at the director's chair for this one. From this the rumor got started that he might get the part. Later it was announced that no director had been assigned for the movie yet.

A source of mine now told me that Jonathan Mostow has been pointed out as being the new director for an unknown movie called Real Steel! According to the rumor talks have also started to bring in writer Jeremy Leven (writer and screenwriter of movies like Don Juan DeMarco and Crazy as Hell), to be part of the team as story editor. The story in Real Steel is supposed to be about 2,000 pound robots that that battle each other in a boxing competition.

However the movie is produced by Don Murphy's Angry Films and distribution is done by Dreamworks SKG. According to my source, this is no co-incidence. According to him Real Steel is actually a fake name for what is actually the Transformers movie!

There are no basis to believe this is in fact true. If Real Steel is in fact a real movie to be made, this is all just a co-incidence. But I do have to admit that Don Murphy, Dreamworks and a story about 2,000 pound robots fighting each other are alot of facts to not take this rumor under serious consideration.

Don Murphy confirms John Rogers report

Date: Wednesday, November 3rd 2004 7:21pm CST
Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: Raymond T. | Credit(s): www.donmurphy.net

Permanent Link
Views: 41,429

Don Murphy has confirmed on his site and board the news that was reported earlier today. John Rogers will indeed be writing the screenplay for the Transformers movie.

On his board, Don Murphy posted the following message in one of the threads there.

Guys

John Rogers is a tremendous writer.
We all read his draft of Catwoman.
It was awesome.
We all thought the film Catwoman sucked ass.
Remember one of my fellow producers on this is Lorenzo D'buonaventura who worked on Catwoman at Warners.

Films turn out good or bad and get rewritten and other people get credit all the time.

John Rogers is one of us. He gets this.

Entertainment Rights gets more Transformers Entertainment

Date: Wednesday, November 3rd 2004 5:05am CST
Categories: Cartoon News, Movie Related News, Digital Media News
Posted by: Raymond T. | Credit(s): www.reuters.co.uk

Permanent Link
Views: 62,652

Reuters Finance News reports that UK based Entertainment Rights have now secured the rights to both Transformers Cybertron and the upcoming Transformers Movie, which will be presented by Dreamworks SKG with Steven Spielberg as executive producer and be produced by Angry Films (Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto).

This report means that Transformers Cybertron will be broadcast on brittish television and the movie will make it's way to theaters. It also means that the path is clear for both to be released on DVD at a future time in the UK.

Entertainment Rights already holds the media rights to Transformers Armada and Transformers Energon, aswell as a host of other childeren's programming.

John Rogers Named Scriptwriter for Transformers Movie

Date: Wednesday, November 3rd 2004 3:41am CST
Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: Raymond T. | Credit(s): empire online, Omega 1

Permanent Link
Views: 43,731

Empire Online reports the latest on the upcoming Transformers movie. According to their news article the scriptwriter for the movie has now been named to be John Rogers.

Rogers' most recent work was seen as screenplay writer for the catwoman movie. Before that his work consisted of writing the movies The Core and Red Skies. He was one of the writers on the sitcom Cosby and was the brain behind the animated series of Jackie Chan Adventures.

Rogers' work on this movie will be writing the screenplay for the story for this movie that was previously written by one half the production team of this movie, Tom DeSanto.

UPDATE: Tom Murphy has now confirmed that John Rogers will be handling writing duties for the movie on his message board. You can read his post here.