It’s been a while since we learned in 2020 that a new animated Transformers movie was in the works. The only real update we had about this project was that Toy Story 4’s Josh Cooley had been hired as director.
Now, Collider.com interviewed producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura who has finally revealed some details about this new animated project for the Transformers franchise. Read on for some highlights of the interview:
- The movie will focus on the story of a young Optimus and a young Megatron and how they evolve into the characters we know today.
- The entire movie is set on Cybertron.
- The origin of the Transformers will also be explored.
- Since it’s an animation project, it could work as a new trilogy.
- While they have ideas about what the following movies would be about, they also want to focus on making the first one really successful.
- It’s not a coming-of-age story.
- This untitled animated Transformers film is set to release in theaters on July 19, 2024.
It seems it was worth the wait for updates about this new film. You can read the full interview on this link or an alternative text version after the jump. Stay tuned with TFW2005 for more updates since according to the original article there will be more content of this interview tomorrow.
Click on the discussion link below and share your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
A new collection of Transformers movies are set to roll out in the next few years, including a new live-action film Transformers: Rise of the Beasts that is set to be a soft reboot of the blockbuster franchise. Joining the latest live-action film is a brand-new and currently untitled animated Transformers film that is set to hit theaters on July 19, 2024. The details of this film have been scarce since its announcement in January 2022, but it was confirmed when it was announced in April 2020 that the film would be a prequel directed by Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley. With the film being a prequel, there have been murmurs that it could be taking place on Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers. Collider’s own Steve Weintraub had the chance to interview Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of both the upcoming animated film and Rise of the Beasts, to discuss the new live-action film but also gained some new insights about the animated film as well, directly asking if fans will be seeing Cybertron in the film. Bonaventura confirmed that the planet will be seen as the film is set to explore the origins of not just major characters like Optimus Prime and Megatron, but serve as an “origin story of all Transformers.”
During the interview, Weintraub asked if the rumors of the film being set on Cybertron is true and if there was anything that Bonaventura could tease about the film. Bonaventura replies that he could do more than tease and revealed large details about the film, including that Cybertron will be the film’s setting and play a massive role in the origins of these fan-favorite characters. He told us:
“I could tell you really important parts of this story, which is more than a tease. This is something we were trying to do; we debated a lot about it in live action, and it just was financially impossible to do, which is, the origin story of young Megatron and young Optimus. If you know the origin, they started as friends, and over time things devolved for them and they ended up on two sides. So we’re telling the young Optimus and the young Megatron story. We really are telling the origin story of all Transformers, both what they were at the beginning of it, to how they grow, to how they grow apart.”
Bonaventura goes on to say that he believes the story they want to tell is a “natural trilogy” with more films already planned beyond this first one.
“We’re hoping that there is enough emotional construct to that, that would lead to a trilogy of it because, personally, I think there’s a natural trilogy. I’m not always looking to do multiple movies, but there’s a natural trilogy around their relationship. So, you’re going to see Cybertron in a way you’ve never seen it, that no one’s ever seen it before. Because we’re doing an animation, we’re allowed to really go all out. If you tried to make this live-action, it would probably be a billion-dollar movie or something.”
He continues by comparing the fall of Cybertron to Superman and the destruction of Krypton and says that the Optimus Prime and Megatron that viewers meet in this film won’t be the same characters that have been seen throughout the years as they are still growing and becoming the people (robots?) that viewers known them as.
“You’re going to see a lot of the origins of the society, and what broke it apart. The analogy for me is a bit like Krypton when you saw the planet falling apart, and all that. We’re not there for a short time, we’re there the entire time of the movie, we’re on Cybertron, but we are in the challenge that, if you know the lore, they begin to question the hierarchy of how their society has gotten stratified, and how the common man doesn’t have the voice, entirely, that they want to have. We’re following very true to the origin story of it, and so it’s really fun, too, because I’ve gotten to see some of it – it’s not fully executed by any stretch of the imagination, but hearing Optimus and Megatron not as who we know them as, which we see their maturation in this experience. So, in a sense, you’re hearing a different character because you’re hearing them before they have matured.”
Bonaventura closes out this extended teaser by confirming that the film won’t be a “coming-of age-story,” but it will see these young men grow into the people they must become, saying:
“It’s not a coming-of-age story. I don’t think you’d believe that, in a way, but I would say they’re young men who are finding their path. Like I said, it’s more than a tease, that’s what the story is, and that’s the experience you’re going to go through. And how they question society, just like all of us, too, could question our society. We’re maybe not as strong as Megatron and Optimus, so maybe we wouldn’t make the same choices, but I think it’s really going to be an eye-opener for the fans. For the non-fans, you’re going to get to meet the characters in their early formation.”
With the possibility that this film could spawn into a trilogy, Bonaventura went on to discuss how that could work. While it seems like they have plans for where the story could go, they also seem very focused on ensuring the first film is successful. He explained:
“I would say this, we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about two and three because it’s always hard to do one well. But there is a natural trilogy coming out of this friendship where you can see the divisions and the possible attractions to each other, and why that should play out over three movies, is very natural. So we have a good sense in the broadest terms, but in the broadest terms, we know what the second movie would be about and the third movie would be about through the eyes of what this relationship’s going through. So the exact plotting, we haven’t worked on that, but how that relationship evolves, devolves, evolves, devolves, all that stuff, that’s what’s going to drive it if we get lucky, if the first one’s a success.”
The Long Wait For A New Animated Transformers Movie
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, while being live-action, is taking heavy inspiration from the Beast Wars animated series that ran from 1996 to 1999. Animation has played a huge part in the Transformers franchise, but the wait for a new feature film in the medium has been a long one. While there have been several animated series in the last few decades, with the most recent one being Transformers: Earthspark on Nickelodeon and Paramount+, the film space has been dominated by live-action films spearheaded by Michael Bay. While Rise of the Beasts will be the first live-action film since 2018’s spin-off Bumblebee, the untitled Transformers prequel will be the first animated movie in the franchise since The Transformers: The Movie, which was released in 1986.
The untitled animated Transformers film is set to release in theaters on July 19, 2024. Look for more from our exclusive interview with Lorenzo di Bonaventura tomorrow.
THE-TRANSFORMER
Bring it!!
SPLIT LIP
I mean, if this sentence doesn’t describe Cybertron itself then I don’t know what does.
Dictionaryabot8407
A. Cool. Nonsensical, but cool.
B. Of course the guy with Thomas profile pic wants it steampunk. Nothing against you, it’s just funny.
mx-01 archon
Even if we take this into account, what of the rest of the industry's dismal performances?
Sinbad was Dreamwork's last 2D film in 2003, and grossed $80M worldwide on a $60M budget. And the year before, they had Spirit, at $120M world with an $80M budget.
Boxoffice Mojo has no budget data for WB's Osmosis Jones in 2001, but with a domestic take of only $14M, that can't have been good.
The Emperor's New Groove (Disney, but they were still producing a semi-regular stream of 2D films back in 2000) is regarded as such a cult classic, but it grossed only $170M worldwide on a $100M budget.
Fox had an infamous bomb with Titan AE, also in 2000, earning only $34M worldwide. A noted troubled production, with a final production budget of $75M, and thus unceremoniously marking the end of Don Bluth's career as a feature film director.
That industry segment was in a death spiral for years. The unfortunate stigma that "cartoons are only for kids" continually dogged the box office. The advent of CG animation essentially, inadvertently, turned into a hostile takeover, when the medium promised a level of never-before-seen spectacle that was able to cast away those shackles.
Again, as unfortunate as that all is, while it's taken a bit, things are coming back around and that old animation talent isn't going to waste. The new CG animation techniques we've been talking about bridge that gap, bringing 2D animation sensibilities into the high-fidelity 3D world.
WreckerImpactor
It's well known fact that Disney purposefully set up their traditionally animated films in the 2000's to fail to have an excuse to pivot to CG which would be more profitable to make becauseeeeeee wouldn't you know it they're cheaper to make because it's non union labor.
Walt is grinning in his grave knowing his company has squashed as many unions as possible.
Cosmosis
And the best part with this being an animated movie is that they could just have a bunch of background cameos milling around without it costing a million dollars. They could totally throw Whirl in there, maybe have Will Arnett go in and say some lines, and be done with it.
The Illustrator
Agreed. I'm so sick of bumblebee.
Illiterate Scholar
I wouldn't mind seeing the IDW designs on the big screen either.
mx-01 archon
Since we're back on that topic, that was actually another lasting contribution the movie-verse gave the TF mythos, for better or worse.
That segment of Cybertron's history was fleshed out in order to justify why Optimus called him "brother" at the end of the first movie, with this shared past more or less supplanting the prior origin stories in "War Dawn" and "The War Within", where Megatron was a pre-formed threat even before Optimus became Prime.
Cosmosis
True, but let's be honest. IDW's Transformers backstory is by and far the most substantial. I'd be very surprised if they didn't pull from it.
mx-01 archon
Unions or not have nothing to do with the fact that the movie only made $200M worldwide on a $100M budget. That's only breaking even at best, after the advertising budget is factored in.
The one future hope for big-budget 2D animation is in the upcoming demographic shift. Our generation, the ones that grew up during Disney's golden age, and during the heyday of 80s and 90s cartoons are starting to approach the point where we're the main demographic, along with the kids that grew up during the anime boom of the late 90s/early 2000s. Once we become the governing factor, rather than the intransigent attitudes of the boomer generation, then there might come a re-assessment.
bellpeppers
RANGO is the one you’re thinking about.
Im not sure if there have been others.
As for RotB, I wouldn’t think either project has anything to do with each other. RotB was started a while back, paused for the koof and other things that negatively hurt Paramount’s cash flow. The different VFX vender is likely to lower the budget of that film and hopefully profit better.
As for ILM animating this feature… man I just don’t know. Is it a case where ILM produces expensive VFX but cheap animation? I dunno. Kinda doubt it. Or other animation companies were booked? Or maybe some trading and bartering to make this cheaper.
Who knows. It’s their money spending it, and our money they want to sell it to.
Illiterate Scholar
ILM's done an animated movie before. I forgot the name. It starts a chameleon or something in the old west.
I wonder if this animated movie is the reason ROTB's effects aren't done by ILM?
Blunderzag
I’m genuinely intrigued about ILM doing an animated film, such a powerful effects studio working on an entirely animated film seems like overkill and it’s exactly why it’s going to be iconic for years to come.
TheSoundwave
Ah, okay. I see what you're saying. I actually think that's a really cool technique, and I don't see anything in the Ninja Turtles trailer that feels off-putting. Thought there might have been a couple moments in Spider-Verse that felt a bit too choppy for my liking. But it's been a while since I've seen it, it's possible I'd get what they were doing with the animation more on a rewatch. As it is, I liked Spider-Verse way more during the second viewing and had a lot more appreciated for the animation. I have no doubt it'll get even better for me the third time.
On a side note, I've actually never seen any Ninja Turtles media in my life (aside from little snippets here and there), but I'm kind of hyped for the new movie. Just looks really stylish and cool.