Angel Manuel Soto, director of the upcoming untitled Transformers movie arrived for a chat with the hosts of MoluscoTV podcast and shared few tidbits on his new venture. Fellow colleague, Black Convoy, took the honor of translating the interview for us.
Mr. Soto stated that the premises of his new Transformers movie will take place outside of United States. The story does not involve the military.
The plot is stated to be completely outside of the Bayverse.
Additionally, the director described the inception of the movie in question. He got the call from Paramount after the 2020 Sundance Film Festival where he showcased Charm City Kings. The Los Angeles production company expressed their interest to make a new and different Transformers project with him. Angel Manuel Soto personally pitched the idea to Paramount & Hasbro. The two companies liked the idea and gave a greenlight.
You can check out more juicy info, after the jump…
The Soto Transformers Project is still in an earlier stage than the upcoming DC Blue Beetle movie (also directed by Angel Manuel Soto).
The director is planning to humanize the Transformers characters on his movie (personality-wise and not design-wise). He want the robots to speak like us, in a natural way. That’s the way he remembers Transformers and the reason we felt identified with the original Transformers. He believes that when you humanize the characters, you get closer to them, love them. When there’s a human approach, you create a connection with them. If not, they are just lifeless robots.
Angel Manuel Soto is surprised to see all the reaction of fans about him directing this movie. He doesn’t want to let anybody down. While he can’t speak much details, he says that the budget is over 50 milliion dollars and it’s a challenge to manage it. He really wants to bring as much of the movie as he can to Puerto Rico.
Elsewhere, Mr. Soto stated that he always wanted to make a movie on Transformers; which he enjoyed during his childhood. Growing up, his father struggled to provide for his family but bought him Transformers toys which he loved and cherished.
Elizabeth Vazquez, mother of Angel Manuel Soto, left a heartfelt message on her Facebook page stating that who would have thought that her son, who used to play with Transformers toys, would grow up to direct a Transformers movie.
“I am super proud of your triumphs and your dedication to be better everyday. You’re definitively a Transformer. I love you son!”
Stratospheric
Here after Rise Of The Beasts trailer dropped
Meister61
Not a fan, better than bay ofcourse, but I like the buffer, cooler looking azure ones better. Like indestructible looking. The non azure ones look prone to breaking, not as much as bayformers though.
Magnum Dongus
I feel like they wouldn’t transform well so it would be a pain to make toys out of them without a plethora of fake parts and backpacks.
TF Hot Rod
Honestly I feel like XM Studio's statues would look great in LA (I feel like they're the only statues that blend LA and G1 really well) I would love to see that Grimlock design in LA
StarMaverick
I totally agree! And the ThreeZero MDLX Bumblebee would also be perfect!
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Meister61
Azure statue starscream look would be great for live action movies.
AOEGalvatronRox
I'm sorry, but, again, the last 25 years of constant complaining by the G1 fans proves this statement to be wrong.
Transformers is the only franchise that I can think of that has a pretty rich history of diverse characters, settings, and, specifically, designs. It's been inconsistent and creative with its characters since the very beginning. It is also the only franchise, that I can think of, that has a fandom that wants everything to stay the same in the name of childhood nostalgia. Everyone is entitled to their wants and opinions, of course, but it's honestly a shame that folks don't want this brand of transforming alien robots to get as crazy as possible. Of course, I'm also looking at this from the POV of someone that grew up with the Bay films, G1, the Unicron trilogy, and Animated. If I had grown up with just G1 back in the 80's, I would probably be singing a different tune.
2fabdad
… it was lost in translation
Dinobot Snarl
Nope not realistic at all no symmetry or pattern between aliens of the same species, no discernable inner structure, internal organs or even method by which thousand of shards of metal are moved and bent during transformation, no suggestion of what or how they eat despite having teeth or why many have overtly human characteristics like hair beards, bellies or … Testicles. No explanation for how metallic creatures with no instestine can fart, or how drool is generated…. Or why.
2fabdad
Random thoughts. Replace Optimus with Rodimus in Movie verse. Change some (only a few to change) dialogue/flashbacks to tie it into the G1 story line. Its strange almost like it was meant to be a continuation. Finding Megatron in the Ice, Flames on Optimus, replace sentinel with Optimus.
Movie Optimus dialogue was a bit too affirmative action for Optimus.
2fabdad
No they went out of their way to make it look a realistic as possible. They asked real life scientists what would they look like if they really existed. Some of it was lost in translation
BigRed
There is something absurd about seeing someone trying to draw a line in the sand about "what is and isn't a likable design" while at the same time claiming that Nightbird would look good in a live action film, when it never even looked good in a cartoon.
Hanzkaz
They were trying to put more emphasis on the alien in 'alien robot'. They were also trying to inspire a certain amount of xenophobia in audiences. ( Insectile details, pointy teeth, freakish looking heads (even some of the Autobots got that treatment) , not to mention an Allspark that turned everything into evil robots – not exactly things that would make you want to hang around with an alien robotic race, Imo. They seemed to aiming more for 'creepy' than 'hi-tech'. .)
Saying that, though, I might have been more
OK-ish with the Bayverse (and I actually was, for a while), if they'd taken more care with the story and the characters. I actually thought a lot of the Bayverse designs were cool. It's just that they remind me of the Bayverse movies.
But the Bayverse was a lot of wasted potential and a huge mess. I honestly believe if they'd taken more care with it, (seriously, don't rush out and kill off virtually every f****** character you can think of. At least introduce them first…), it could have rivalled the MCU.
.Anyway, Bumblebee showed that G1-based designs could look good, too (something which I wasn't sure of, originally) and that's what I want to see now. I don't mind them throwing in a bit of Bayverse aesthetic here and there (though, I'd prefer it to be for 'new' characters), but I think I'd like to see live action G1 designs now. (though, I won't be too upset if Optimus-with-flames makes a reappearance on special occasions. (just make it clear it's the Knightverse now). As for Bumblebee, he's done a decent Beetle alt mode story, so I don't mind him going with the Camaro going forth, with the odd VW cameo, every now and then. Just don't don't turn him into some human screamer's 'pet', this time.)