WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: The TRANSFORMERS Series

Transformers (2007)

>Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was originally developing a "G.I. Joe" movie, which was scrapped after the American invasion on Iraq. Hasbro then recommended "Transformers" instead.

>Michael Bay initially declined to direct the movie, but was ultimately persuaded by producer Steven Spielberg.

>Early drafts featured only Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes. Bay added Captain William Lennox and his team to broaden the movie's audience and secure funding from the U.S. military.

>Early drafts featured Autobots Hot Rod, Wheeljack and Prowl. Bay liked the concept of a Decepticon police cruiser so much that he made Prowl into Barricade.

>Early drafts featured Decepticons Shockwave, Laserbeak, Skywarp, Blitzwing, Onslaught, Octane and Rumble.

>Later drafts featured Autobot Arcee, who was scrapped due to her diminutive size.

>Later drafts featured Decepticon Soundwave, who would transform into a helicopter, and his minion Ravage. Hasbro demanded that Soundwave's alt-form be music-related, so the helicopter became Blackout and Ravage was replaced by Scorponok. A boombox Decepticon was included, but deemed inappropriate for Soundwave and reworked into Frenzy, while Soundwave was scrapped.

>In early drafts, the Transformers didn't speak per studio demands, but writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman persuaded them otherwise.

>Liam Neeson was approached to voice Optimus Prime before the studio decided to bring back the character's original voice actor, Peter Cullen.

>Ewan McGregor was approached to voice Bumblebee before Mark Ryan was cast.

>Amanda Seyfried and Emma Stone auditioned for Mikaela before Megan Fox was cast.

>Bay was initially against casting Shia LaBeouf, believing him to be too old and too confident to play an awkward teenager.

>John Turturro claims to have modeled agent Seymour Simmons' mannerisms on Bay. Bay disputes that, others do not.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

>The movie was rushed into production due to the writers' strike despite having no script, resulting in a disjointed movie which Bay has openly renounced.

>During pre-production, Lee Tamahori volunteered to direct the movie at a lower price than Bay and aggressively lobbied for the job, even leaking his pitch on the internet to generate positive buzz for himself. It didn't.

>Bay attempted to create an elaborate misinformation campaign to prevent spoiler leaks, which failed and actually led to more leaks.

>Due to the troubled production, numerous characters and storylines were scrapped, including Autobot Springer, who transforms into a helicopter; Decepticon Tidal Wave, who transforms into an aircraft carrier; elderly Decepticon Ransack, who transforms into a WWI-era biplane; Massive Dynamics, a robotics corporation created by government to cover up the Transformers' existence; and the Fallen being trapped in a parallel dimension and only escaping in the third act.

>Early drafts featured a battle between the Autobots and Devastator which was scrapped due to the complexity of Devastator's CGI rendering process, which even caused one of ILM's computers to melt down.

>Autobot Jolt was a last-minute addition to showcase the Chevrolet Volt, to the point where he is unexplainably absent for long stretches of the movie.

>Barricade would originally return as an Audi, but the brand refused to be associated to one of the villains. They ultimately reconsidered, and the Audi R8 was reinserted into the movie as minor villain Sideways.

>John Turturro would originally voice Jetfire with a southern accent, but was replaced by Mark Ryan.

>Leonard Nimoy was approached to voice the Fallen before Tony Todd was cast.

>Jonah Hill was approached for Leo Spitz before Ramon Rodriguez was cast.

>Teresa Palmer auditioned for Decepticon Alice before Isabel Lucas was cast.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

>Michael Bay intended to leave the franchise after the third movie.

>Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman pitched the concept of Autobots and Decepticons joining forces to fight Unicron, which was rejected by the studio. They departed from the project shortly afterwards and were replaced by Ehren Kruger.

>Shockwave was announced as the main villain to cover up Sentinel Prime's alliance with the Decepticons.

>In early drafts, Optimus Prime would accept Megatron's truce and the Decepticons would return to Cybertron, but this was changed as Bay didn't want to leave loose ends.

>In early drafts, Sentinel Prime would kill the Twins alongside Ironhide, but Bay disliked the characters so much he preferred to ignore them altogether.

>In early drafts, Dino would be executed by Soundwave, while Que would be killed by Protoforms during the final battle. This was changed after Ferrari objected to "their" character being killed onscreen.

>Ramon Rodriguez was approached to return as Leo Spitz, but the character was removed in further rewrites.

>Megan Fox was slated to return as Mikaela Banes, but was fired due to disagreements with Bay, leading to the character being scrapped and replaced by Carly Spencer.

>Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Gemma Arterton, Amber Heard, Ashley Greene, Brooklyn Decker, Miranda Kerr, Bar Refaeli, Heidi Montag, Camilla Belle, Katie Cassidy, Lucy Hale and Julianne Hogue auditioned for Carly before Rosie Huntington-Whitley was cast.

Fuck this chink garbage

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014).

>Michael Bay initially declined to return. Stephen Sommers, Roland Emmerich, Jon Turteltaub, Louis Leterrier, David Yates and Joe Johnston were approached to replace him before Bonaventura convinced Bay to return.

>Bonaventura merged two separate pitches, one centered on Galvatron leading an uprising of man-made Transformers and one centered on Lockdown hunting down Optimus Prime on behalf of the Creators, to produce the final script.

>In early drafts, Lockdown was assisted by "Widowmaker", a psychotic female Cybertronian bounty hunter, but the character was scrapped in further revisions.

>In early drafts, archaeologist Darcy Tyrell had a larger role, including a romantic subplot with Cade Yeager, which was scrapped in further revisions.

>Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson was approached for Cade Yeager before Mark Wahlberg was cast. The character would originally only be featured in one movie and sacrifice himself in the end, but further rewrites expanded his role and changed his fate.

>Margaret Qualley, Gabriella Wilde and Isabelle Cornish auditioned for Tessa Yeager before Nicola Peltz was cast. The character would originally be the franchise's new co-lead, but further rewrites reduced her role.

>Brenton Thwaites, Hunter Parrish, Landon Liboiron and Luke Grimes auditioned for Shane Dyson before Jack Reynor was cast. The character would originally be the franchise's new co-lead, but further rewrites reduced his role.

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

>Michael Bay initially declined to return, but was ultimately persuaded to do so one last time.

>A Writer's Room overseen by Bay and the producers was created to create an elaborate "Transformers" cinematic universe and map out future sequels and spin-offs of the franchise.

>Bonaventura once again merged two separate pitches, one about a corrupted Optimus Prime returning to Earth amistd all-out war between humans and Transformers, and one about the secret connection between the Transformers and Arthurian lore, to produce the final script.

>Jean Dujardin was approached to voice Hot Rod before Omar Sy was cast.

>Stephen Merchant was approached to voice Cogman before Jim Carter was cast.

Informative.

...

Nice fan fiction retarde

>Ewan McGregor was approached to voice Bumblebee before Mark Ryan was cast

FUCK!

He was the actor I always thought would have been perfect in the movies.

Bumblebee has a surprisingly mature voice for a kid character.

he should be a nigger with a huge BBC that Meagan Fox would jump on the reg behind Leboufs back

They made the right decision by keeping Peter Cullen, though.

There is only one Optimus Prime.

He's a literal who

Liam Neeson might have made the movies worth watching

Great thread. Really great thread guys. Fucking awesome thread. Totally worth having been made and people having posted in it.

>He's a literal who
He's the one true voice of Optimus Prime as far as millions of neckbeards with deep pockets are concerned.

I enjoy these threads.

fuck off niggerfat

You DO?!?!

>OP tries to start discussion
>only responses are
>"fuck chinks", frogposting, BBC posting, and then no responses at all

This thread is AWFUL

Lorenzo (overstuff the plot) di Bonaventura

I appreciate the trivia, at least.

Bump.

>Bonaventura once again merged two separate pitches, one about a corrupted Optimus Prime returning to Earth amistd all-out war between humans and Transformers, and one about the secret connection between the Transformers and Arthurian lore, to produce the final script.
SO THAT'S WHY THIS MOVIE WAS SUCH HOT FUCKING GARBAGE

I couldn't even tell it was him during The Last Knight. He sounds nothing like what he used to anymore.

>The script featured the Matrix of Leadership, but producers felt that'd confuse audiences due to the MATRIX series and the Allspark was used instead.

>Sam's parents originally had a pretty minor role. Instead of Sam and Mikaela going back to his house to get the glasses they'd have to sneak into school to get them from Sam's locker, evading a bunch of guards and janitors and then the Sector Seven agents who arrive to aprehend them.

>Barricade was supposed to get killed by Optimus right after Bonecrusher, but Bay liked him so much that he cut the scene so Barricade could come back in the sequel. Then all that stuff with Audi and the Writer's Guild happened and Barricade ended up only showing up on "Dark of the Moon" to die. But then he got retconned into being alive again in "The Last Knight".

>Lennox's buddy Fig, played by Amaury Nolasco, was supposed to succumb to his injuries during the battle with Scorponok, but test-audiences liked him so much they cut the scene so he could be back in the sequel, yet he never did.

>Simmons was supposed to be the movie's designated asshole, but John Turturro's wacky performance was so endearing that the character ended up becoming a recurring comic relief.

>Megatron was originally a "Spark Cannibal", who rips out other Transformers's Sparks and eats them, and that's how Jazz was supposed to die, but the idea was eventually deemed too edgy and scrapped.

>Optimus Prime would originally kill Megatron by punching the Allspark through his chest, but Spielberg felt that Sam needed to be the one to deliver the killing blow to complete his character arc.

>Bay liked Bonecrusher so much he named his dog after him and then included the dog in all the sequels.

>The scene where Lennox's call gets intercepted by an annoying call center operative while trying to reach the Pentagon was based on a real life incident that Bay had heard from a soldier.

i know nobody is actually discussing the movie in the slightest here but i LOVED cogman holy fuck that little fucker should get his own spinoff and i speak as someone who rarely likes 'joke' type transformer characters (like wheelie or brains. hound is okay because i love john goodman)

>The movie originally featured a lot more of Optimus Prime's and the Fallen's backstories. Basically, after the Dynasty of the Primes sacrifices themselves to hide the Matrix of Leadership, the Fallen returns to Cybertron and slaughters their descendants, but Optimus is hidden away and survives. He grows up without knowing he's a Prime and becomes brothers-in-arms with Megatron, but when Optimus finds out the truth Megatron gets butthurt and ends up being seduced by a weakened Fallen into forming the Decepticons and the war begins.

>The Fallen's relationship with Megatron was also pretty different. Megatron only followed the Fallen because the Fallen promised to make him a Prime. In the final battle, Optimus reveals the Fallen doesn't have that kind of power, and Megatron gets double-butthurt and betrays the Fallen, leaving on his own.

>The Twins were supposed to be Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, but that was changed in favor of the (presumably) child-friendly Skids and Mudflap.

>Arcee was supposed to be a single consciousness divided in three bodies that can combine, in order to solve the scale problem. But at some point this was axed in favor of just three female Autobots bikes and they all died anyway.

>Soundwave was supposed to join the final battle in Egypt, but they didn't find room for him.

>At one point Wheelie was supposed to be a mute.

>There's a deleted segment that reveals that "Alice" got her alt-mode from an life-like Alice in Wonderland animatronic from Disneyland.

>There's a deleted segment where it turns out there's another old senile Decepticon Seeker hanging out at the Smithsonian alongside Jetfire. His name is Ransack, and he follows the gang to Egypt to challenge Jetfire to a duel for betraying the Decepticons. He goes on a lenghty ritual just to fire a single ineffective shot at Jetfire (impotence joke, I guess). Jetfire then kills him.

>There's an extended deleted comedic segment where Sam gets in touch with Lennox's and Epps's wives and gets them to relay coded messages about Optimus through house decorating arguments that the guys don't figure out at first, all while the movie's designated asshole, Secretary Galloway, is listening in.

>The Twins were supposed to kill Devastator, but the U.S. Army wanted to show off their new rail gun (yeah, it exists), so they had to write it into the movie.

>Rachael Taylor was approached to return as Maggie, the hot hacker from the first movie, but declined.

>Anthony Anderson was approached to voice Jolt, but the character was so last-minute that there was no time to animate him speaking.

>Bay approached Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern show to play the border officer that lets Sam & gang pass because he's a fan of the NY Yankees. They had a major scuffle during the meeting for some unknown reason and Deep Roy got cast instead.

>Reportedly that scene where Jetfire explains the Fallen's backstory was redone more than a dozen times because of how much information it had to dump into the audience.

>The movie was oficially completed only 12 hours before the premiere.