Hands down the most fun movie of 2007, and easily the best movie ever adapted from a cartoon (although that’s not saying much) was Transformers. It was everything you could have hoped a live action adaptation of a beloved (and admittedly cheesy) 80’s cartoon show could be. The film is riddled with flaws, but succeeded in the areas it needed to the most, and thus delivered. Most importantly, it left a lot of film goers panting for more. And more is indeed coming.
My buddy Robert over at IESB recently sat down to interview one of the producers of Transformers, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and asked him about the status of Transformers 2. Here is some of that conversation:
IESB: Can you give us a quick update on Transformers 2. Is it still planned to start shooting in July of 08?
LDB: The second, June 2nd.
IESB: June 2nd?
LDB: Yep.
IESB: Is the story locked?
LDB: We’re no where because of the strike, we won’t know until we come back. We have a very fine outline and we know exactly where we want go with the movie but until this writers strike comes back, we’ll find out exactly where we are. Michael is completely on top of every detail. He’s designed a lot of great stuff already. He’s got a lot of great sequences imagined but you know, he needs some writers to work with before he’s ready to go, so I would say June 2nd is an unofficial start, it’s the target date we’d like to go for but, you know, we’ve got to get some writers to help us.
IESB: Now, comparing to Transformers 1, how much bigger is Transformers 2 going to be?
LDB: (laughs) You know, I’m gonna let Michael answer that question.
IESB: (laughs) Well, come on $700 million dollars…
LDB: I’ll say this much, I know that Michael wants to deliver a bigger experience for everybody.
So there you have it. I’ve got to believe that even two totally ass-centric groups like the leadership of the WGA and the AMPTP can get their act together by June. But hey… if I’ve learned anything in the last few years is to never underestimate the stupidity of some people.
