Exclusive 1-1 With Roberto Orci On Transformers

By Kellvin Chavez on June 26, 2007

Latino writer Roberto Orci cut his teeth writing for such television shows as Hercules, Xena, Jack of All Trades and especially Alias, and those experiences – as well as his friendships and professional collaborations with Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams – paved the way for him to co-pen such movies as The Island, The Legend of Zorro, Mission: Impossible III, the upcoming Star Trek feature and the about-to-be released sci-fi/action epic Transformers. Set for release on July 3, Transformers reunites Orci with Michael Bay, who directed The Island. Latino Review recently sat down with Orci at a Los Angeles hotel for this exclusive one-on-one interview.
 
Latino Review:  Now that it’s out, what do you think?

Orci:  I like it.

Latino Review:  Have you seen it?

Orci:  Oh yeah, are you kidding?  A lot of times, (while) we were in the editing room.

Latino Review:  What made you say, ‘OK, I want to write this?’

Orci:  Spielberg.  Just when he agreed that it had to have a human point of view.  There had to be more than just robots fighting.  When he agreed that (it should be) like ‘Close Encounters’ which is a big spectacle, but it’s about a man disintegrating.  We wanted to make sure there was an equally valid human experience. It didn’t have to be that deep necessarily, but I wanted it to be something real.  And so when he said, ‘A boy and his car,’ and we realized OK the point of view was, ‘We were all there; get your first license, get your first car.  What does that mean?’  That means maybe the girl or the boy, it means independence, it means getting away from your parents for the first time, it means… you know?  We knew that that was enough of an emotional anchor, even if you don’t say it out loud, that that it was interesting enough for us to continue on.  And basically that phrase did it.

Latino Review:  How much of the animated series from back then did you want to incorporate into this?

Orci:  You know, there’s a lot of the moments in the movie that are inspirations, like seeing Hoover Dam; that was one of the images from one of the fights that they had.  You mean in terms of story?  We knew wanted to keep an element of the background very much intact.  Cybertron, fight for energy, Optimus and Megatron, some of the main characters on each side.  So we tried to stay as true to the history as we could without it getting in the way of what it needed to be today.  So if something didn’t work in live action, that’s when we would examine it, but we didn’t feel like had to reinvent the wheel just to be clever.  The things that worked, work still.

Latino Review:  Being that it’s so many characters in that world, the ‘Transformers’ world, how did you go and pick and choose as you’re writing, ‘OK, this is who we’re going to introduce,’ being that there’s so much of it and put it all into a two hour movie?

Orci:  From the Autobot side, we knew that we wanted that first string from the bench that we saw; just selfishly I remember the cartoon and I remember the four or five.  I remember, from just memory, before we even went back, so we knew, ‘OK, we kind of want that.’  And then from the Decepticons we knew that (we had to have) Megatron and Starscream, but after that, (with) the Decepticons we took a little bit more freedom because we wanted to make sure that they served the story.  Like, for example, the opening; we also had this idea, actually, the first thing we thought of when they asked us to do this was, ‘We should open on a Decepticon sneaking onto a military base.’  OK, well how should he do that?  Well, obviously he should be a military vehicle.  So, in a way, the story dictates that he should be either a helicopter or a jet.  ‘Now, well let’s just make sure that that boom box sneaks into the…’ We wanted to make sure that the story was, gave us a little bit of freedom to dictate what the Decepticon should be.  So it was a mix of our memory and a mix of updating it to serve the story.

Latino Review:  A lot of the stuff on the Internet got leaked out all over. Did you pay attention to what the fans were saying while you were writing?

Orci:  Yes.

Latino Review:  And did that inspire you to say, ‘OK…’

Orci:  We did a draft and a half or two before we… We wanted to make sure we had an opinion before we just… because you can get misled, obviously, if you talk to the wrong group, so we wanted to make sure we had a strong sense of what we thought it should be first and then jump into the Internet and see what people were saying and then adjust accordingly.  But we interacted a lot and it did affect the development.  The fan voices were literally a presence for us and in meetings, they came up.

Latino Review:  How do you write a film of this caliber to appeal not only to the fans, but now also to bring new fans?  Anyone can see this; you didn’t need to be a fan.  How do you go about writing it like that?

Orci:  Well, the first thing we wanted to make sure… that’s why the human point of view was important to us.  Because we knew that if we all agreed on that, then the story could be, or one of the stories could be, humans discovering.  And so the minute you have in the movie proxies for all of the audience members, suddenly you are, it’s dictating the fact that they too are experiencing this franchise for the first time.  So that’s how we knew that if we could agree on that, that that would take care of itself.  Because now they are being introduced to this crazy movie just like the audience is; they’re just going about their lives until this happened.  So we knew that if we could all agree on that, then it would take care of new audiences because they would be seeing it just like the characters.

Latino Review:  So now one of the other questions I have that one of your fans wants to know about is the script reviews. It’s a big subject now that these studios are getting on me now. To me, it helps and sometimes some people, they don’t get it, you know?  What we try to do nowadays is we don’t spoil it, but we just try to give the plot point, that’s it.  We don’t tell you, ‘OK, Megatron dies, this person dies, that person dies.’  Does that help or not?  Are you for script reviews or does it hurt a movie?  ‘Superman,’ for example, got hurt.

Orci:  Yeah I know, big time.  J.J. (Abrams) is a friend of ours, so we know exactly.  Um I think…

Latino Review:  And it was very successful for us were, ‘Batman Begins’, because of that script review, the Internet buzz went crazy from it and now with ‘Transformers’ it’s the same thing. It went ‘Whoa!’ It went nuts.  So what’s your opinion on that, script review stuff?

Orci:  I’m torn, honestly, I think it’s, A, ‘It’s a reality, so just deal with it,’ is partly my answer.  Part of it two is we never would have I think jumped into interacting with fans as much as we did if the script hadn’t leaked.  Because suddenly we were forced to just explain (things).  I think it hurts a movie like ‘Transformers’ a little less because so much of the spectacle is a part of it.  But I do think part of the surprise of going to a movie is discovering what happens and I think sometimes the more you know going in, the more it can hurt your perception.  However, hopefully the audiences are getting sophisticated enough (to realize) that if you’re reading a script you know you’re slightly ruining it for yourself, so just be aware.  And don’t ruin it for people. It’s kind of the old of, ‘If you don’t like something on T.V., change the channel.’  So I think it’s kind of the same thing. It’s like people want to learn so much about how anything works and so I totally get it for that reason.  No one’s evil for reviewing a script or even giving things away.  You don’t have to read it.

Latino Review:  No and not only that, we’re torn with which review goes where. Studios come to us and say, ‘Well you’re ruining it for the fans.’  We just had a fight with a studio over a script review.  We’re not ruining it.  We’re just telling you the plot point. ‘Yeah, but we don’t want people to know. ‘Yeah, but that’s what the fans want to know.  They just want to know what it’s about.’  We’re not telling you this happens, that happens, this person dies, that person dies.  And we got recognition from Hasbro, right now for ‘G.I. Joe.’

Orci:  The other way I’m torn is when it’s an unfinished script, which the one that leaked for us was.  It’s tough to like hear, ‘Oh they suck.’ I’ve said it online; it’s like sneaking into a chef’s kitchen, tasting the dishes and then complaining that they’re undercooked.  Well yeah, they’re not finished yet!  So however, again it is what it is and I don’t… it’s a mixed bag, but I don’t blame anybody for doing it or anything like that.

Latino Review:  Now that you’ve written stuff in trying to appeal to the ‘Transformers’ fan and bring in new fans, how do you do that for ‘Star Trek’?

Orci:  Hopefully this has been like a workout at the gym.  ‘Transformers’ is gonna get us nice and ready for the fans on ‘Star Trek.’ We’ve learned a lot, actually, from that.  Again we, we’re diligent about, with J.J. Abrams, and with Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, agreeing what we all wanted to see first.  And then this one, on ‘Star Trek,’ for example we don’t have the advantage or the luxury of the fact no one has ever seen it.  People know what ‘Star Trek’ is. We don’t have the advantage of the fact (that Transformers has) the giant robots or something.  So we are more protective of that story because the intellectual property that is, the surprises of that story are, in a way, the spectacle of it.  And so we are a little bit more worried about that getting out.  But we feel pretty confident, you know. I was a diehard fan.  Damon and I are crazy fans, J.J. and Alex are like mid-level fans and then Bryan Burk doesn’t know anything about it.  So it pleases all of us, I think, what we’re doing, and hopefully that’s going to be the litmus test that it’s going to prevail.

Latino Review:  So you finished the script?

Orci: We have a greenlight draft, we finished it Christmas, its going, it shoots in November.  We’re in the middle of casting right now.

As for the casting, are you guys or J.J. Abrams have any cast in mind?

Orci: We should have significant casting by Comic Con and most likely make some more announcements by then.

Latino Review:  Is it more challenging for you to do this one, ‘Star Trek,’ than it was…

Orci:  No no, ‘Transformers’ was the hardest one ever.  Yeah, ‘Star Trek’ was a breeze compared to this.

Latino Review:  Because you’re a fan?

Orci:  Well, I was a fan of both, but I don’t know why.  Probably because all the people in it are actual actors. [Laughs]

Latino Review:  What do you want to bring to ‘Star Trek’ that say, like my kids for example, who don’t know ‘Star Trek’…

Orci:  That’s exactly what I want to bring.  I want it to be an introduction to that world and I want to take it for granted.  I don’t want it to, no colons on the ‘Star Trek, Five and a Half.’ It fits in between this and that, you know, it’s ‘Star Trek.’  If you’ve never seen ‘Star Trek’ or anything about ‘Star Trek,’ this is for you.  And if you’re a fan, you’re going to see a different movie because you’re absolutely going to see references and you’re absolutely going to see a different movie if you’re a fan.  It’s actually very interesting to us, and I can’t wait for that to come out because it literally is two movies in one.

Latino Review:  So is it more like a prequel or not?

Orci:  Sort of.

Latino Review:  Like an introduction.

Orci:  An introduction to the world, but not necessarily exactly a prequel.

Latino Review: Before we spoke downstairs, though, why not write the sequel for ‘Transformers’?

Orci:  Um, maybe.  I just don’t, we just don’t want to sign up just to sign up.  We need to have an idea for it and I frankly don’t [Laughs].  You know?

Latino Review:  Can you give an update on ‘Amazon’?

Orci:  We have a script coming in at the end of the month, so we’ll see what happens.

Latino Review:  I don’t know anything about it, what is it?  I heard it was like a female…

Orci:  The Amazons are the historically lost society that was entirely composed of women. Scarlett Johansson is… it’s an area that interested her.  And after we did ‘The Island’ together her people came and asked us if we would be willing to develop something for her and so that’s what we’re doing.

And ‘2012’?

Orci:  ‘2012’ is a book by Whitley Strieber. It’s set up at Warner Brothers, (with) Michael Bay attached.  It’s about all the weird things that are prophesied to be happening in that year, how the solar system is going to be lined up with the equator of the galaxy and the Mayan calendar ends and the 26,000-year processional cycle of the Earth is up and it switches from the Age of the Pisces into the Age of Aquarius.  All kinds of actual, astronomical things are relevant to that date and the story’s all about what going to happen. [Laughs]

Latino Review:  That’s cool.  Do you think Transformers is going to be a trend? I’m seeing a trend already where you see 80’s cartoons coming out as movies.  You got this one, you got…

Orci:  ‘He-Man’.  ‘Voltron’.

Latino Review:  ‘Voltron’, we just did a script review on that right now.

Orci:  Oh you got ‘Voltron’?

Latino Review:  Yeah, we put it up.

Orci:  Oh, I’ll come to check it out.

Latino Review:  Yeah I liked it.

Orci:  Oh good.  I think it is going to start a trend and I think it’s a little bit buyer beware.  Just because it was an 80’s brand does not make it a reason to make it a movie.  Again, we went through this on this one. It was, ‘OK, I get it, but are you going to do it right?’  ‘OK, we’re going to do it right, great.’  Just slapping the name on it doesn’t do it. Just think about how much cynicism this came with. Everything is going to come with that same cynicism.  And a lot of the whole, ‘There’s nothing original anymore.’ So it’s going to be a lot of that.  So I apologize in advance for whatever we may have started here. [Laughs]

‘G.I. Joe’, is there any way you and your partner would ever consider that?

Orci:  Yeah, I would consider ‘G.I. Joe.’ I like ‘G.I. Joe.’  See, that to me, is one that does have a worthy (idea), on its face.  What does the military mean today?  There’s inherent things in it that are interesting and relevant to now, not just a throwback to 1985.  Just inherently, not to say you can’t find that in ‘He-Man’ or anything else, but in ‘G.I. Joe’ I see (it) a little bit more clearly.  In fact, ‘Transformers’ there were several comic lines that were ‘Transformers’ versus ‘G.I. Joe’ and a lot of our inspiration actually came from that.  I mean, you can see it in the movie plain as day.

Latino Review:  Would you consider doing one?

Orci:  We’d consider ‘G.I. Joe’ [Laughs].

Source:Latino Review

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