Hasbro’s Chief Content Officer Stephen Davis spoke to WorldScreen ahead of MIPTV Conference to let the audience know of their plans in the coming future. The article also gives us our first look at Chase The Police Bot and Boulder The Construction Bot along with Heatwave The Fire Bot as seen on the upcoming series; Rescue Bots Academy.
Mr. Davis first spoke about the new agreement with Paramount Pictures:
“We announced a deal with Paramount Pictures to produce and distribute content based on our brands. We’ve been very focused on moving that new relationship forward. We’re going to collaborate with Paramount on live-action and animated films and television. It’s a phenomenal opportunity for us to control more of our strategy and, more specifically, to produce content around our brands that is consistent with our brand blueprint and brand priorities. It gives us the ability to calendarize the release dates of our movies in partnership with Paramount. And we have a very active voice at the table with Paramount on how our movies are marketed. Being able to communicate with our retail partners, sometimes two or three years in advance, is super important to creating the kind of environment where we can activate our brand blueprint across all aspects of our business.”
He then went onto to talk about Transformers: Cyberverse and Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy which will be showcased during the aforementioned conference:
“We had the release of Transformers: The Last Knight. We were very pleased with the performance, particularly at retail. Transformers is growing substantially, driven by storytelling across multiple platforms. The great thing about Transformers is we have touchpoints in the broadest demographic. In pre-school we have the Transformers: Rescue Bots [Academy] television series. Transformers: Cyberverse is our tween/teen show. There’s fan-based content on Machinima, and then, of course, our four-quadrant movies*. That’s paying dividends for us. We are now getting ready for the next Transformers film at the end of this year with Bumblebee, which stars Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena.”
*Note: In the entertainment industry, a four-quadrant movie is a movie which appeals to all four major demographic “quadrants” of the moviegoing audience: both male and female, and both over- and under-25s. Films are generally aimed at at least two such quadrants, and most tent-pole films are four-quadrant movies.
You can check out some more tidbits and a new image from Rescue Bots Academy, after the jump. The full interview can be found at WorldScreen. MIPTV Conference will be held from 9th April to 12th April at Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France. Hasbro Studios booth cam be found at Stand: R7.D32 (entrance ticket is priced at US$ 1600/-)
WorldScreen: You have so many long-running brands. What’s been the key to keeping them relevant to kids over the years?
Davis: First and foremost, it starts with great storytelling and great characters. We have an amazing creative group— both in the studio as well as in our brand and design teams. They work closely to ensure that we are telling innovative and fresh stories, building worlds around interesting characters that continue to inspire consumers, and traveling across the multiple touchpoints of engagement.
Transformers is a great example of that. It’s a brand that has been around for 30 years and has expanded throughout the years across multiple touchpoints—including publishing, animation, film, video games and consumer products and a very broad demographic. That helps us to keep brands fresh and alive. We can innovate in lots of different areas.
Hasbro Studios
Stand: R7.D32
Transformers Cyberverse (18×11 min.)
Bumblebee is on a critical mission — only, he can’t remember what it is. It’s a good thing Windblade has found him to help repair his memory to complete their mission before Decepticons find them.
Transformers Rescue Bots Academy (52x11min.)
A group of young Bots fresh from Cybertron have the honor of being the first-ever class to enroll in Earth’s Rescue Bot Training Academy and learn how to become Earth heroes through hands-on experience.
stad
"Everyone who disagrees with my opinion is full of hatred and a liar, and I absolutely hate those idiots!"
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Infosaur
Great example!
I think what really kicked off F&F after the 3rd movie was how loyal the actors were to the franchise (or vice versa) they let Vin walk after the 1st movie (sure he asked for more $, he was hot shit at that moment) and the movie did poorly. They did a completely new cast for 3 but teased that Dom would be back for 4. They even brought back the guy from 3 (who looked NOTHING like he did in 3 now, I think he's on one of the CSI shows) for a two minute cameo in a later movie. It makes no sense but it shows once you're in "the family" they'll look out for you.
(The only problem with the last movie is they didn't have the balls to kill off Brian off screen. Everything in that movie makes 100% more sense if Brian is killed by Cypher and Dom's sister and nephew are held hostage, rather than Dom's previously unknown son from the Brazilian cop)
Frankly F&F has better characters than the Bayverse. Drift speaks with an Asian accent, Hound is fat, Crosshairs makes critical comments, annnnnnd? I mean really other than Ratchet, Ironhide and Jazz can anyone really remember any meaningful lines from any of the other Autobots in any of the movies?
(Personally I think Vin should shelve F&F after Paul's death and focus on the xXx franchise. Probably could crank out a dozen more of them and Xander Cage doesn't even have to be in half of them. It's actually brilliantly set up. Universal just needs to pull the trigger.)
GrimLocke
I’ve been working my way through Phase 2 of IDW, @CopperPuppet , and there’s a lot more characters than just those featured by Sunbow, especially in More Than Meets the Eye. The first thirty issues of Robots in Disguise were good and had a bit more variety, but after Dark Cybertron and it’s rebranding as just “The Transformers” the comic has crashed, burnt, and smoldered for the last dozen issues. Maybe it gets better after Combiner Wars, but I’ve heard not to expect as much.
Still, I love MTMTE because it seems more like manga or maybe just more like something from Image Comics’ or Tokyo Pop, for examples.
And, since Hot Rod was not a character I cared much about as a kid, I only just noticed a couple days ago that Gurren Lagann might have been ever so slightly inspired by Rodimus, and likewise by the that MTMTE took inspiration from TTGL as that rolled into town. So, just a bit more fuel for my Studio Trigger prayers
Autobot Burnout
Fast and Furious works namely because it recognized its niche was in ever more extravagant car stunts and implausible situations. The first two films took itself way too seriously (that's kind of why nobody likes 2 Fast 2 Furious), Tokyo Drift is more relaxed despite needing to honestly be retconned into the main lore, but from Fast 4 on the plot has been more about adrenaline pumping action and sweaty bald guys trying to kill other sweaty bald guys in the most over the top ways and no sense of plausibility. The plot of Fast 7 doesn't even make sense given the entire plot about needing Godseye is just so Dom can find Staham and kill him…even though Staham comes to Dom twice to basically do the same thing, rendering the entire roundabout item fetch quest needless. That doesn't stop it from being good, far from it – its good because it embraces just how utterly bonkers it is to have plots where the world is saved through street racing during implausible situations the world over and just has fun with it. Additionally, Dom's crew are a really likeable, crazy bunch who are always fun to be around – they're far from perfect but that just adds to their appeal and charm.
deathzero23
Paramount?
I remember some old news articles stating that Paramount have big problem with money.
And Paramount is putting high expectations on the Transformers films to save their financial losses.
And those expectations are riding high on The Last Failure, thinking they'll get billions of dollars like what AOE did.
But no. It failed. No matter what formality of "everything is fine" by Stephen Davis.
Everyone knows it. Davis made those remark for "corporate reasons".
Movies basically should have "heart" in order to make audience sink in to their story.
Transformers movie franchise, lost it along the way. "Loss of Heart".
The 1st and 3rd film have a strong "heart" in it. The 2nd film have better excuses due to the writer's strike.
I felt AOE was kinda saved by the inclusion of characters like Grimlock and Lockdown and the plot of Crackdown on Autobots.
And totally lost it in TLK. Characters like Squeeks, Sir Edward, Cogman, Hotrod, the Dragon Knights can't even saved it.
The TF Live Action films should at least learn and take a page from the book of Fast & Furious film franchise.
No matter how so abused, redundant, exaggerated plot (car thieves turned world saviors) and making over the top & impossible vehicle circus stunt film after film it's still making money for Universal. You gotta wonder what still makes Fast & Furious ticks.
Windsweeper II
Or a chug Strongarm
CopperPuppet
That so?
A damn shame either way. I would personally love to see new incarnations of other non-G1 characters and stories pop up alongside all new content and the usual G1 tributes and such.
Livingdeaddan
You alright Rush?
Ironically I have to say the only place where I find mass amounts of people loving the movies, is right here.
Autobot Burnout
Part of that blame falls on Warden, who has a massive fixation on only G1 and thus reportedly is strongly against any kind of development of character incarnations from other series unless Hasbro strongarms him into compliance.
CopperPuppet
I think it might be kind of a shame that there does seem to be such a focus on G1. Don't get me wrong, G1 is cool and all, but the franchise seems to have lost some sense of malleability that I appreciated, if only slightly. I think it's kind of a missed opportunity that the Generations line doesn't seem to branch out like it should in my opinion.
W-P38
It's a perspective, and a valid one. Presently, Generations, including CW, TR, POTP, Mega Action Series, Cyber Battalion; Cyberverse generic/evergreen designs, every successful video game and comic, Masterpiece, and just about everything available, sans a few nods to Beast Wars and Armada, is G1 based. Hell, I still remember the late 90's and having nothing at all to choose from other than a few Beast Machines Figures. No MPs, no G1 reissues, no Generations, no movies, nothing.
My comment was contra the notion that the franchise is lacking congruence. It is not. And this is in large part, in my opinion, thanks to a return to what is essential.
Neko-bot77
……..I read the thread title quick and though it said "Stephen Davis Comments On The FAILURE Of Transformers Franchise Media"….LOL! now THAT would be a story!
Ash from Carolina
You should watch the Twilight movies and then get back to us about the whole only the best of the best movies make money. That there are no movies out there with a big box office run that make you wonder why people pay good money to watch that.
I like the Marvel movies and they do insanely well at the box office. But I wouldn't call them the greatest movies that have ever been made. They entertain people, but they also tend to be really formulaic. They have had a crazy number of movies over 10 years but you could count the great Marvel/Disney live action villains on one hand.
Transformers had it's time in the sun and for a while the series was entertaining people. But everything runs out of steam at some point if the creative team can't find a way to shake things up. I don't know if we'd be talking about the Fast and the Furious movies if the fifth movie didn't shake things up to bring new life to the franchise. Or look at how long Jurassic Park sat on the shelf because by the third movie just having bigger dinosaurs wasn't enough to carry the franchise.
Don't become like those G1 only fans. Chill out and wait around to see where things are going to go next. Yea sure I loved G1 but that doesn't mean that I don't also love Beast Wars, Animated, or that there were not episodes of Transformers Prime that knocked it out of the ball park for me. Heck I passionately hate movie Bumblebee but I'm still willing to say I'll watch the Bumblebee movie if it turns out to be a really good movie.
Autobot Burnout
…I literally showed you the box office numbers of your own country at how the franchise was taking a nosedive. Yes, the franchise made lots of money, but you ignore how the last entry did so poorly that no business with a brain would continue down a path that was beyond clear in falling apart. It's called "cutting losses" in the business world.
…okay then.
DAMN YOU.
Now I want a snickers.
GrimLocke
I haven’t seen it either, but I had skimmed the TFWiki for the Headmasters a bit ago in my curiosity to see where Sixshot had received the most characterization, @CopperPuppet
However, over a decade ago, I followed a fandub of Transformers Victory that was surprisingly well done, especially compared to the Combiner Wars Machinima
I’ll probably get to the Titan Wars Machinima when I get up to that in the IDW comics, but I suspect getting around to the Headmasters might be more rewarding.
Windsweeper II
Everything
CopperPuppet
@GrimLocke
I'm not too familiar with Transtectors or Headmasters outside of the 'Titan Masters' incarnation, newer fan sorry, so I can't say much.
I have seen Kamen Rider though (Every Heisei series besides Kuuga, Agito, Blade and Hibiki currently), so I can at least understand what you mean in that regard, kinda.
SilverOptimus
Absolutely. Very well put. I myself came to the franchise with the movies but I've now accepted the fact that a change is inevitable. In fact, at the moment, a good change is a must. Transformers Franchise has always been about change. Figuratively and Literally. A market analyzer once told me that 30+ years for a franchise is a huge thing. Not many companies can pull it off. The reason why Transformers survived so well is because of its constant transformation. Hasbro knows this, Paramount knows this. Batons must always be passed, torches must always be passed. If Paramount can keep up the momentum, then continuing is fine by me. But the verdict is in clear writing: The film series must do something extraordinary, otherwise it'll enter Franchise Fatigue. Star Wars is the clear example of this. I think I put it in the best way possible on my 'Focal Point Article':
"It is indeed amazing to realize that it has been 11 years years since the first Transformers Live Action Movie came out. For many across the globe, these movies became their own G1. We couldn’t help but wonder at the fact that Bumblebee: The Movie will become a new generation’s introduction to The TransFormers. There’ll be a kid out there so happy during this Christmas season, watching the new movie with awe and wonderment and later writing to Santa for a Bumblebee toy. 4 days later on the Christmas Day, he or she will wake up early in the morning and dash to the Christmas tree to tear the packaging with so much excitement to see their new toy. Thus, a new ear will truly dawn."
GrimLocke
I do really like the idea of showcasing the Headmasters through Tokusatsu, but I felt resorting to Kaiju costumes would be a tad bit of a disservice to the transtectors so my mind veered towards Kamen Rider, @CopperPuppet There were some pretty big CGI buddies in 555, Kiva and Decade, from what I recall watching years ago.
Then again, I guess we’d have to wait for the MasterPiece Trypticon and FortMax before that could even remotely become a reality
Also, with Gridman and Ultraman both having anime revivals in the works, why not ring up either of their studios, Hasbro?
CopperPuppet
That's quite the idea you have there. I was just joking about a Transformers movie where the Cybertronians were just guys in those bulky, borderline cardboard box style robot suits Sentai uses.