Via One Take News, we have an exclusive interview with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura who talks about the future Of Transformers and G.I Joe for the upcoming movies.
Read on for some highlights:
I don’t look at things like a universe, I look at them as a story and [the Joes] will be a part of the story. I also think the term “crossover” means different things for different people. For me, the Joes, whoever they are, are entering the world of Transformers, not combining the two worlds. The plan is to eventually do [a crossover]. But, for the next movie, it’s the Joes that are coming in for whatever the ending of Rise of the Beasts has led us to believe is possible.
When asked to clarify if Transformers and G.I Joe characters will just co-exist for now or interact:
Oh, they will interact. We haven’t developed a script yet though. What I will say is just like we do with every other movie, it will be a team of Transformers and humans fighting the fight. The Joes will be a part of that.
Read the full article here or a only-text version after the break. Let us know your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is the latest installment in the long-running and hugely successful Transformers franchise, and it was such a breath of fresh air. It managed to adapt the fan-favourite Beast Wars storyline successfully while giving us endearing characters to watch. Just over a month after it hit theatres you can watch it from the comfort of your own home and see the film, including THAT scene, in full HD. For the Rise of the Beasts home premiere, OTN spoke to longtime Transformers producer and one of the biggest names in Hollywood, Lorenzo di Bonaventura about the film, When we asked about the surprising ending and what it means for the future of the franchise. Here’s what he had to say:
I don’t look at things like a universe, I look at them as a story and [the Joes] will be a part of the story. I also think the term “crossover” means different things for different people. For me, the Joes, whoever they are, are entering the world of Transformers, not combining the two worlds. The plan is to eventually do [a crossover]. But, for the next movie, it’s the Joes that are coming in for whatever the ending of Rise of the Beasts has led us to believe is possible.
When asked to clarify if Transformers and G.I Joe characters will just co-exist for now or interact, di Bonaventura kindly expanded upon this:
Oh, they will interact. We haven’t developed a script yet though. What I will say is just like we do with every other movie, it will be a team of Transformers and humans fighting the fight. The Joes will be a part of that.
Plans for these two Hasbro franchises to cross-over have been attempted for DECADES but this is the first time that the two franchises have awknoledge each other in the live-action films. Due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, it might be a while before a script is developed and filming begins but that’s the price to pay for equality and fair pay in Hollywood. However, once the film(s) finally release, We’re sure it’ll be a blast.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is out on digital platforms now. Stay tuned for the rest of our conversation with di Bonaventura!
96megatron
I hope there's some effort made into placing and keeping canon the first two G.I. Joe films (Rise of Cobra and Retaliation) into this G.I. Joe/Transformers shared universe with all seven Transformers films. Hasbro could release a Guidebook that gives a timeline of the films similar to what the MCU does.
There are certainly some issues with that. To the credit of the first two G.I. Joe films, it's unclear when they take place, though there are some clues.
– In G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, all that is said about when is it taking place is that it's "in the near future…".
– In G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Duke and Roadblock play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which was released in 2011 in IRL.
– Zartan mentions that he's been disguised as the President for "a few short months". Giving us a timeframe of how long it's been between RoC and Retaliation. Lady Jaye gives some months when cross-referencing the habits between the Zartan-disguised President and the real one.
– During the meeting of the world leaders, one of them says something along the lines of "50% reduction by 2016" meaning both films take place before 2016.
As for some notes and issues regarding them being in the same universe and where they'd fit:
– The Transformers aren't mentioned in Both G.I. Joe films, maybe they take place before first Transformers film, so maybe 2005, 2006, the latest or before Revenge of the Fallen, though given Duke's and Ripchord's skills you think they'd be recruited by N.E.S.T.
– The Noah/Mirage Exo Suit seems to be a precursor to the accelerator suits used by Duke and Ripchord in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.
– Mentioned on the TFWiki the G.I. Joe insignia on Burke's business card is the version introduced in the film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Which could change in a sequel.
– The President in the G.I. Joe films either preceded the president of Transformers (2007 film), who was meant to be Bush or succeeded President Obama in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The first film takes place in 2007 and the second two years later, while the third films take place in an unknown number of years after the second film. The President in the Joe films is said to be on his second term according to Zartan. There is a five-year gap between Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction. So maybe the Joe films could take place in that five-year gap.
– Biggest hurdle would be the destruction of Central London in Retaliation by Cobra's superweapon, Zeus. Which would be difficult to rebuild by the time of Transformers: The Last Knight, which features London prominently in the second act to third act, a film which also takes place in an unknown year.
I should mention that while some world-building stuff is lined up with real life, given the access to alien technology, some technological advances might cause some game and game systems to emerge earlier. And in the fictional world of G.I. Joe and Transformers, it's possible that Obama only served one term.
Something I'm trying this week is an experiment of watching a possible chronological order of all seven Transformers films and the two G.I. Joe films.
1. Bumblebee
2. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
3. G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
4. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
5. Transformers
6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
7. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
8. Transformers: Age of Extinction
9. Transformers: The Last Knight
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Time Travel of the Maximals and Unicron's possible release from Earth)
omegafix
I had such high hopes after Bumblebee. RotB was pretty much a Bay-Lite flick. I'm glad I got to watch it for free
EXACTLY!
DriftsEdge
This present the problem, Lorenzo got both awesome and not-so-awesome ideas, but he’s is really bad at making them comprehensible.
Judging from the interview, it seem like he wants to make every new films a stand alone until something that’s capable of connecting them together later on. Which is why he refuses to acknowledge terms like “universe” or “crossover.”
WishfulThinking
Lorenzo needs to prove he can make a good GIJoe movie first. While I actually rather liked Rise of Cobra, I recognize that it was GIJoe-in-name-only.
If having a few Transformers in a GIJoe movie means more butts in seats, then all the better.
Honestly, adapting the G2 introduction in the GIJoe comics into a movie wouldn't be a bad idea. It explains Megatron's Earth mode as a tank.
And Optimus taking his Hero mode would make sense in light of GIJoe as well.
![[IMG]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/df/63/1edf634553515ab674baa5d5c05bba66.jpg)
![[IMG]](https://www.transformers-universe.com/content/images/Imagemaps/G2OptimusPrimeCH_Map.jpg)
DriftsEdge
The way I see it, BBM and ROTB should be set as a start of Hasbro Cinematic Universe (like Iron Man from 2008 for MCU) and the story will continue with GI Joe and maybe some other Hasbro properties while Transformers are still being part of the story or background characters in these new movies.
G1 Cassette Hunter
That's literally EVERY Transformers movie tho?
The Happenin Rhinoceros
Lol. That was the point I was making…you mixed up Travis Knight and Zach Snyder
Lightningsonic
no one say it isn't not try to appeal to China. My point is it not just success because of JUST CHINA. It still have that sweet CGI epic shit giant robot people seek for. And again, most of it box official is not come from China, where audience wont even know who is Chinese stars is. That is a undoubtly prof of AOE worth.
And You act like the previous trio movie don't have as much of cringy human characters scene be there for no good reason. This time it is Chinese, the last time it is some dog sex scene or some fat ass America, or 2 adult male take of their pant of in a WC for plot…etc… for us the rest of the world this China shit is not worse than what the shit previous movies already give us.
Autobot Burnout
There was literally a contract that gave Paramount a greater share of ticket sales than what the Chinese government usuall allows for foreign made films. Two big Chinese movie stars are in the film for really no purpose other than appealing to the Chinese audiences. The entire final battle takes place in Shanghai.
AoE is a film literally built to milk the untapped Chinese box office and its success there is why TLK was a slapdash piece of shit in the end. Paramount legit thought the Chinese were going to mindlessly see that crap because they liked AoE so much.
Bumblethumper
I don't care about GI Joe and I never will.
It's a crossover that won't expand the audience, and it's a crossover that I don't want. It's a case of using the popularity of one franchise to prop up another.
PrimeBot
TLK was truly a case alright. It was a case of even the Bay TF fans (mysealf included). Couldn't even deffend that movie.
As for the other 4, yeah its true the domestic box office was declining post ROTF. But the international numbers showed up in bulk force. Especially China which added like 300 milion to AOE worldwide box office.
Now with ROTB we saw an increase in the domestic side but a decrease in china. Which was apparent since TLK the decline in china was happening
Lightningsonic
backhawkdown is Correct, People act like AOE only success thank China just to belive it is so bad and pretend like the first trio is anything superior. It have best China box official of the franchise, but that not even make up most of it Box official. The other rest of the world is what make most of AOE money, bigger than both US and China.
Majestic Senzu
>G.I. Joe
>known for their tech
>exosuits
>Renegades was cool, let's do that again
So we're getting a Rise of Cobra sequel with Renegades elements?
backhawkdown
No, the marketing in China for AOE did not cannibalize the domestic audience; I’m not sure what point you are trying to make with the claim. And the massive overseas decline for TLK could not have been predicted from the domestic decline from DOTM to AOE. Fact is the global decline for TLK was because it looked terrible and had no interesting hook like the other films did.
it was not only a bad movie, it looked bad too. The rest are bad movies but didn’t look bad.
UtahRobotInDisguise
If The Rock wasn’t being his usual egomaniacal screen hog self, the second movie was actually pretty typical of a classic 80’s gi Joe adventure. If they would have used The Rock’s paycheck to hire a few dozen more Joes for cameo appearances in their ridiculously specialized outfits, it would have been like Transformers Bumblebee’s Cybertron scene.
oh well. Thankfully we still have DND, coz Hasbro is hemorrhaging their properties on film.
ToaDraco
Plot twist: The jar of toxic glue IS Lorenzo!
Autobot Burnout
You are completely omitting the part where AoE had a gargantuan marketing campaign to bulk up its presence in China, at the cost of severely losing its domestic performance.
What happened with AoE is precisely why what happened with TLK was predictable as all hell.
backhawkdown
Not true. Age of Extinction was the top grossing movie of 2014; the difference between it and DOTM is negligible when you are talking two movies over $1billion gross. Both were massively popular. The decline was The Last Knight which was the first movie of the writers room project and the series hasn’t recovered since.
Silly Dave
The franchise was already on a decline way before Paramount tried the writing room fiasco. All they did was put the last nail in the coffin. It was a miracle that we got the BB movie which started a slow healing process from the damage the Bay films caused.
I'll give it to the first three movies, they brought a lot of new fans to the franchise and brought it back into the light. But exploding emotionless robots can only drag a franchise so far. And as quickly as that success came it went away.
The point is the franchise is fragile. Tacking a IP that has had really bad luck on the big screen is a very risky move.