Reinforcing the importance of China to the continuing financial success of The Transformers properties, recently noted here and during The Last Knight’s theatrical run here, Lorenzo di Bonaventura talked about how that relationship best functions during a film’s production from script to screen as part of his “Close Ups – A Conversation with…” address at the 4th annual UCFTI in Los Angeles.
“You can guess, but a co-producing partner can help you with that [navigating what material might upset Chinese officials],” said the producer. [He] provided an example of when they were shooting a Transformers scene in Hong Kong. “They didn’t want the Hong Kong police to be shamed, which was never a concern because it’s a very heroic movie. We didn’t have to bend for that; there’s different criteria for different places,” he added.
We also learned about the value of product placement to The Last Knight’s media campaign (a cool $20m) and the robot cast size (4) of a certain upcoming Bumblebee film. Read the full article here, then join the discussion on the 2005 boards!
snokoan
He'll why don't we just get autobot burn out to be a producer so he can stop whining
Moy
And the story that was told in tlk was really bad. I believe that omitting the Dinobots and the aliens we saw in tf4 also had a major impact in the chinese box office.
JennAvenger
Soon the Chinese will co-own the transformers brand and ip… and future tf movies will be nothing but commercials for their products….
and in the distant future, the Chiness will rule the world …
Autobot Burnout
Fair enough on everything except the tornado transformations – I'm willing to excuse those since the show did take its time to actually have in-depth transformation sequences for almost all the main characters.
The problem with that one slot of a Titan Class is that they couldn't actually DO Omega Supreme for story reasons. Would it have been better to know that the ship had been Omega Supreme from day 1, or learning that it was Omega Supreme in one of the darkest moments of the show to give that glimmer of hope for the Autobots? That isn't to say I wouldn't have loved a Titan Omega, but there it truly would have ruined the surprise.
But I don't know about how 'sales' are up, because TF5 toys just are not moving. A lot of the reports from all over the place are sounding similar to, if not worse, than what happened with Animated. And with that cartoon, it was an issue of not having the toys even on shelves until like, well past the halfway point of season 2 (and I'm Cincinnati, OH based, where those damn things were supposed to be released first as a dry run!), so the toys likely didn't move as well because the show wasn't actually on. In comparison, TF5 toys were out well in advance of the films and there's still Wave 1 stuff shelfwarming. Prices being almost double what they were ten years ago admittedly plays a part but in light of how AoE shelfwarmed for years? Not looking good.
I'll admit, Hasbro experimenting with gimmicks has gotten better – who the hell thought they could actually pull off an entire line based on the headmasters gimmick from 1987?
But at the same time, I see them losing focus on how best to market the product. I mean, the movies are just about the only modern media property Hasbro hasn't shoved that abomination Windblade in, while every cartoon since Prime has had her immediately and without any design change whatsoever, and a toy release every single year since 2013. Then there's the Bumblebee and Windblade show lined up which seems more of a stop-gap move than anything since the complete failure of the Aligned concept to take off (which fell apart entirely due to Hasbro putting the wrong people in charge). And then there's The Bumblebee Movie which is hearkening back to the 80s with fewer robots and a much smaller budget which got moved to December of next year and with it the Movie Edition toyline, the film itself being a prequel because honestly these people don't even know what they're doing with the goddamn story anymore.
The brand is in a bad spot, because yes, the gimmicks and the toys are quite good, but the media is suffering heavily because instead of experimenting with bold new storylines and styles like what we got with Animated, Hasbro's moving in the complete opposite direction and trying to focus more on the nostalgia factor in everything…while also putting in Windblade who is more of a focus group created thing if all the people in said focus group were bad fanfiction writers. Or, in other words: a repeat of the late 80's in terms of G1.
I think Kre-O is going to be a hard sell now that Lego's got several movies under its belt.
And while GDO was nice – I own the Springer and the Wheelie deluxes – that was back in 2009. Since then, almost every single character who had a retooled toy in that line has gotten an infinitely better one, such as the damn near perfect voyager triple changer Springer (who people swore was never going to happen) and Titans Return Wheelie (who is only missing the slingshot, unless you happen to have GDO Wheelie in which case…). Additionally, from what I heard, GDO wasn't even supposed to be a stateside release until TRU got wind of the and wanted 'em for holiday exclusive sales.
I dunno, Isenberg being involved really didn't solve the more critical problem that Prime pretty much destroyed any sense of even vague continuity between Aligned properties and thus was hamfisted into merely another linear timeline to be rebooted.
And my problem with Goldner generally lies in the fact the movies are all he thinks about. In an interview last year, he was quoted as saying Bumblebee was mute. This is in complete ignorance of the fact that the only running Transformers series on market at the time was RID, where Bumblebee has talked since episode 1. His general cluelesness to what the actual state of the brand is like that is why I don't really like him.
No question there. Hasbro did change for the better, ultimately, and the movies were profitable. Hell, the 2008-2010 period pretty much was a second golden age because holy shit everything was so good. Well, except ROTF's writing, but the toyline was beyond exceptional for the period.
The problem is that Hasbro is dead set against trying to do that again by any means necessary. It's incredible how backwards the company vision for Transformers has done a complete 180 from "let's try new things" to "STAY THE COURSE EVERYTHING IS FINE."
Which is why Lorenzo needs to be removed, or failing that, simply take Transformers away from Paramount. They don't actually understand the franchise at heart.
Indeed, the films did their job and they did it well. Hell, the first one is the reason I got back into Transformers after being turned off by Energon's bullshit.
But it's been ten years. The movies were good for introducing the franchise, but that job is done. It's time for something new, something better, and Hasbro under Goldner isn't ever going to take that risk. He's not going to try and move away from the very thing that made him CEO in the first place.
SilverOptimus
Goldner is the person who spearheaded the current "Brand Blueprint" at Hasbro. I've once had a chance to chat with several financial journalists regarding Hasbro and they all claim that what he did led to the success of Hasbro in the current times. I'm not apple-polishing Goldner but what he did revitalized Hasbro for another generation (or more). It's a risk he took with the first Transformers movie, a risk which paid off in long terms. All the expansions that are happening at Hasbro is due to the Brand Blueprint initiated by Brian Goldner.
In the 60s-80s era Hasbro stormed through the market as a Toy company. But it was not enough for the modern society. With everything becoming digital, entertainment presence is needed to bring the toy industry forward. If Hasbro didn't do what they did in the early 2000s, they would have been left out of the race very much like many companies which fall flat on their backs.
I represent this site on financial calls or investor events by Hasbro. I listen closely to Q&A sessions. I think that I'm sufficiently knowledgeable enough to grasp what is happening. Hasbro currently identifies themselves as a 'Branded Play Company'. NASDAQ identifies Hasbro as a company 'providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings'. It's not just a toy company anymore. Nor it can go back to that stage.
The way things work is vastly different than what most fans think.
But I do admit that some of the tactics are getting outdated. They died as the first decade of 2000 ended. Hasbro need to step up. Outdated formulas doesn't work anymore. People moved on. Hence what happened to Transformers: The Last Knight. Paramount need to learn this too. Putting up a spectacle is not enough for the modern audience. It's sad to see di Bonaevntura still thinks TF Franchise as a spectacle only. What he did to promote Transformers movies through out the first trilogy worked for that time period, not to this current decade.
I cannot emphasize this enough: Move out of US or Europe and see what the Transformers Live Action Movie did to the franchise in other parts of the world. There are people who fell in love with the franchise because the movies introduced the brand to them. The movies reached to people who never knew about the franchise. TF toy collecting became a thing in my country. Not just movie figures, TF toys as a whole; Generations, Prime, RID etc. You have to see to believe. The movies made a huge difference. It opened up markets where market was not there in the first place. Kudos to that.
Deadend
Apparently you missed the whole tirades of backlash animated had gotten from the fanbase about its "tornado transformations" and more. And it sounds like you also missed the entire plot of season 1 of animated that was heavily movie influenced from the Allspark itself's first usage in animation there, to Megatron being the foundation of all robotics in Detroit, and more that it drew from all over the lore, but it was heavily first live movie influenced. Still is one of my favorite series yet, and wish it had continued on to get a proper season 4, but that's a whole other story in itself why it didn't happen that has nothing to do with Goldner. As for Hasbro being on the "decline", uh, no they aren't. Sales are up, and have been steadily increasing each year, with only a few bursts of low sales in previous non-movie years between 1,2,3, and 4. Since 4 and 5 sales have been increasing across all lines of the franchise steadily.
Animated on the other hand started to not move at retail near the end along with other business issues(it was licensed to CN, and CN could have kept it going even while HUB was starting, but they opted to end it for various reasons which eventually led to reruns of it on Hub, and now is on digital demand through Kabillion), so it got cancelled, which led to Prime with the heavier movie influence focus, then RID, and now soon Cyberverse. It was a host of factors, a strong contender of which was that retailers wanted something new after how well sales of the first 2 movie toylines did(which is why we got TF: Prime as Hasbro's main focus at the time).
I loved the animated engineering and more robust designs, but it wasn't one of hasbro's best sellers. And to say they are failing since after it ended is a clear ignoring of all logic and facts.
Titan class Animated Omega Supreme and a GI Joe Sari figure are my two biggest wants, alongside a GI Joe Cogman, but even I have to admit that Hasbro's current business plans are working. Sales are up. Generations is stronger than ever in sales. Some of the movie figures are cool as heck, and they are no longer afraid to experiment with the toy side of the brand, and also have a much stronger adherence to animation models for their toon based toylines. Heck, even the new city bots and combiner sets(devastator and Predaking) would have never happened under older Hasbro direction. With animated, the one slot we should have gotten Omega Supreme in, ended up being a massive out of scale to the rest of the line Optimus Prime.
This is no longer the days of RTS Perceptor where we couldn't get G1 alt-modes. TR Perceptor and even TR Kup showed how willing Hasbro is to enjoy its roots while still trying new things like the minicon launchers in RID. Modern hasbro is doing some awesome things, and I look forward to what they come up with next. And some of the same business minds behind animated are some of the same ones that are giving us what we're enjoying now across the board. Heck even looking at the mashers line and Hasbro's willingness to try Construct-a-bots shows how much they've changed from those older business views they've had to evolve into better directions that are giving us products that are extremely enjoyable.
The china market has also sustained some other lines for Hasbro as well, keeping Kre-O alive for the time being, while they decide how they want to re-brand it, plus it brought us some of the amazing figures through the GDO exclusives.
And apparently Hasbro enjoyed Animated too, because first chance they got, they brought Marty Isenberg over from it to other projects of theirs. Heck, even RID was heavily Animated inspired, especially some of Drift's design elements that were influenced from Animated's Samurai Prowl. So your claim that Goldner is the problem at Hasbro is heavily misinformed.
Strawberrytop00
I wish Lorenzo di Bonaventura would leave the films as from everything I've heard about him…it's like he has no love for the characters of the Transformers themselves…I hear he's always pushing for more human centric plots. I would like to see even ONE film with all new people no Bay no di Bonaventura just all new people on board and see just how big a difference it would make.
The problem isn't 'only four robots' they could have more and I would still be skeptical because it will be completely human character centric as always. The fact the BumbleBee is the main character and doesn't talk just makes it worse because BB gets the most screentime out of the entire cast but his screentime is all just him making sad or happy noises as Shia does all the talking, there's hardly any dialogue (Real dialogue not 'here's a funny sound clip from a probably better film' XD) I wish they would see that the Transformers themselves are great characters that can carry their own films. I didn't watch anything Transformers till after I saw film 1 and I was in high school, but what made me love G1 even though it was basically 'what evil scheme is Megatron up to this week', (it was a kids show after all…one I would have loved to actually see as a kid but oh well XD) was the large amount of characters and personalities, it was impossible to NOT have a favorite. And then you go see the films and realize that those who don't dive deeper in to the franchise and just watch the films are really missing out on fun characters.
Autobot Burnout
To this day I don't get why they didn't put Bay on GI JOE. Dude's basically perfect to make it.
bellpeppers
TLK didn’t do as well in China as AoE.
I think AoE was a fluke in that regard since 1/3 of that film took place in Hong Kong and put a positive spin on the Chinese government.
bellpeppers
Oh, hell yeah.
Basically that’s what he did in the 1st 3 TF films.
Ash from Carolina
The flaw I see in the Paramount/China relationship is that Paramount has been so focused on pleasing officials to get movies released in China that the studio has lost any sort of real focus on domestic appeal. The attempts at something that will appeal in China has resulted in products that don't really seem as appealing either in China or back at home.
As Chinese film makers keep picking up their A game for ever bigger domestic hits for them you have to wonder if Paramount putting too much emphasis on China is the wisest plan ever as it's just going to get harder to make watered down films that have to appeal world wide the sort of things that can really compete with the Chinese studios that can laser focus on the Chinese market. If a Chinese studio can make a few bucks in the US well that's just icing on the cake but Paramount seems overly dependent on China. Too many times it seems like China has had to bail Paramount out on bad films and perhaps The Last Knight has shown that Chinese ticket buyers now have enough choices that they don't have to settle any more.
SilverOptimus
I enjoyed both movies immensely. Which is why I see him as the best person to do a G. I. Joe movie.
Caminus Prime
The only way he's going down is if paramount goes down with him, we've warned them many times to get rid of him and they never listened. They're too delusional and insecure for their own goods let alone deserve remote success from this liscence. They are a complete disgrace to the movie industrys. When they get to their final failure (and they will) i sincerely hope a more competent studio like Universal gets a hold of this brand and actually set an example on how to make a good movie.
Prime17
Yeah, I definitely get where you coming from. I won't fault people for being pessimistic and at the same time won't fault them for being optimistic. For me, I'll wait for reviews and if its good, great. If not, the calls for a reboot will just keeping get louder and more justified. Let's just hope for the best.
Oh, and I was referring to "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" saying. Calling a Tennessee saying was just a dumb joke/reference to a video where former U.S. President Bush called it that while screwing up the delivery of the quote.
bellpeppers
He still does ok with smaller films like 13 Hours and Pain and Gain.
Prime135
I’m pretty sure bay’s days are numbered. Paramount ain’t doing so hot financially, and his last film didn’t exactly live up to the lofty expectations they have for the franchise.
snokoan
Amen
Galvatross
What old saying from Tennessee? I'm not from the South, so I am not familiar with sayings from that part of the United States.
The thing about any Transformers fiction is this: I will always give new fiction a shot. It does not matter who is producing it or what continuity it takes place in. I love G1, and it has its share of crappy fiction, but it also many of my favorite Transformers stories. I love some of the some stories and characters in the movies and am "meh" on some others. I don't hate the more enjoyable fiction in G1 by association with the lesser episodes and comic issues.
Furthermore, there is never going to be a movie that will please a huge majority of the fandom. Not a Bayverse sequel or spinoff or prequel. Not a reboot. Not a remake of x-titled Transformers fiction. Future Transformers movies don't need to cater to any member of this fandom. Not me. Not you. Not anyone in this thread. If I like something, then great. If not, then I will happily wait until something I love comes along. If that never happens again, then I still have the large amounts of Transformers fiction and characters from the past I love, so I will still be thankful to be a fan of Transformers.
I don't like many of the recent cartoons. I think there are too many things going on with IDW at the moment for me to get interested again. I did not like TLK anywhere near as much as AoE or DotM before it; I didn't hate it, I just didn't like it to the same degree, but I'm perfectly fine with that. However, I'll still give Cyberverse, Bumblebee, Transformers One, and any Bayverse sequels a chance. If a live action reboot came along next decade, I would give that a chance. We as fans need to be open minded before we watch it and not just hate and despise all future fiction automatically.
So yeah, when the Bee movie comes out I will go to see it in theaters. I will hopefully like it, and if not that's okay, too.
Autobot Burnout
Given the kinds of paychecks they're bringing in? They haen't paid rent on the homes they own for years.
Caminus Prime
The same reason Michael bay is: Relevance and he's probably trying to pay his rent