All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S11E06.Autobots.Reboot.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-Kitsune_track3_[eng]

Film after film,
Transformers was proving

to be Paramount's
most powerful franchise.

I think that's listed as one of
the fan favorites. It's right
up there.

The franchise had been so
successful,

made a lot of money.

Fueled by the
AllSpark.

You hold the key to Earth's
survival.

We are here looking for the
AllSpark.

And a good amount
of Bayhem.

You're going the wrong way,
the other way, other way.

Lift 'em up again. Do it again,
do it again. Keep rolling.

The Transformers
universe

appeared to be taking over the
world.

That Chinese market
was super duper aware

of American films, and
it wanted its hunk of it.

But the fifth film
would take a medieval turn.

Charge!

Like, what?

But in
spite of its hefty budget

would be a blunder at the Box
Office.

It was a lot of
movie, I think, for two hours.

Nothing in that film was
really good,

nothing really landed.

Hey, so, are we nearing the end
of the road with this thing?

The Box Office spoke for it.

The ratings spoke for it.
The fans spoke for it.

To make matters
worse,

old rumors about Michael Bay
resurfaced...

I think when we did
the last one,

I think we sensed that,

that was going to be the
last one for Michael.

I heard him saying
he wasn't gonna do it.

You know,
you say that sometimes

when you are sick and tired
of it.

...that this time
might actually be true.

He's like, "Hey, just here's
the reins

and you know, continue on
with this amazing franchise."

In 2017,
Transformers: The Last Knight

was a flop.

You've gotta be kidding me.

Nothing in that film was
really good.

Very mean.

The Box Office spoke for it.

The ratings spoke for it.
The fans spoke for it.

It's awful.

It seemed
that the sun had set

on a franchise that Hasbro had
hoped would go the distance.

And I thought that the fourth
one

was going to be the last.

Nope. Prior to its
release, Paramount announced

The Last Knight along
with two more films,

and for that we can really thank
Marvel.

I am Iron Man.

The Marvel universe spurs on

the Transformers universe
to keep creating new movies.

And Marvel had
created a lot of movies.

Marvel sort of exploded
and did five gazillion films.

And in turn,
Paramount was eager

to make a gazillion
Transformers movies.

Are we talking about an
invasion?

Their worst fears

were about to become a reality,

what once were rumors
now appeared to be true,

rumors no studio exec wants to
hear.

They heard him saying
he wasn't gonna do it.

You say that sometimes when
you are sick and tired of it.

Do you think I'm joking all
the time?

It seemed
Transformers

was preparing to roll out

without the father of the
franchise.

Well, I think when we did the
last one,

I think we sensed that,

that was going to be the
last one for Michael.

Maybe a bit of fatigue,

maybe you need a new voice
coming in,

and maybe it was exhaustion on
our part.

After more than a
decade

and five blockbuster films,

Michael Bay was stepping away
from the director's chair.

He's on that movie for
years, start to finish

and he's probably tired of
seeing robots after a while too.

Just when
Paramount was gearing up

for more Transformers--

- Roll out.
- We roll.

The Transformers
machine

appeared to be powering down.

Losing Michael Bay was
a huge blow for Paramount.

Here's this blockbuster director

that basically created the
universe

and helmed the franchise to
success at the Box Office.

He is gone now, there's a
creative vacuum,

and remember, Paramount just
announced

there's going to be more films.

So there
was no going back now,

Paramount was all in with
at least two more films,

but before they could hire a new
director.

They needed a script.

Your world will be reborn.

Paramount had said,

we're going to have just
a bunch of writers come in

and do round tables.

Paramount brought in
some real heavy hitters.

Spearheaded by Oscar
winner, Akiva Goldsman.

There was Walking Dead's Robert
Kurtman,

and Black Hawk Down
screenwriter, Ken Nolan,

who consequently wrote The Last
Knight.

Hey, you know there's a
reward for turning you in?

- Really?
- Yeah.

Cool, you wanna get punched
in the face really hard?

No.

These were the more
well-established writers in the
room,

but there were some up
and coming talent as well.

Fresh ideas are always
good for a franchise.

You need a lot of ideas.

Throw everything at the
wall, see what sticks.

And some of the
freshest and stickiest ideas

came from one of the
least established writers.

Christina Hodson,
after having her script,

The Eden Project
included on the Black List,

was invited to Paramount's
Writer's Room.

You could say Christina's story
was a bit

of a departure from the typical
Transformers spectacle.

A little story that
seemed

to dovetail nicely with one
of the littlest Autobots

in the Transformers universe.

- Bumblebee.
- Bumblebee.

He's so fun.

To me, he's the coolest of them
all.

I love Bumblebee.

He was always the one that was

directly connected to the humans

and so that's what made him
special.

And he was little, he
always had a big heart.

The script
would serve as the prequel

to the Transformers TV
show set in the 1980s,

and a return to the core
narrative

that executive producer
Steven Spielberg

had envisioned since the
beginning of the franchise.

During the writing process,

Spielberg encouraged
Christina to create more

of a coming of age film instead
of

a straight up action film.

He really compared it
more to E.T. in spirit.

Good.

But instead of being
about a boy and his alien...

It's a story about a boy
and his car.

...this time it would
be about a girl and her car.

Well, an alien car,
to be precise.

No, I'm good thanks.

I love the fact that Christina
Hodson

based the character on her
nieces.

And the script is, it's not
all about robots fighting.

Oh my God.

I equate it to making
almost Pretty in Pink

with Transformers.

Well, I'm the only
one that comes in here.

I don't even know how they're
still open.

The Bumblebee script
was really a departure

from the Transformers universe.

It was smaller in scope, it was
personal,

it was really a fresh idea,

but it was a risk for the
studio.

A risk
Paramount would be taking

without veteran director Michael
Bay.

Oh, what we would all give
to have Prime back right now.

Bay was across
every aspect

of the first five films,

from casting to filming
to editing, but now--

He's like, "Here's the reins,

and continue on with
this amazing franchise."

It's madness.

Those are just big shoes to
fill.

Luckily Michael Bay

would stay on as a producer,

but it was veteran
Transformers producer,

Lorenzo di Bonaventura,

who on top of his many
other responsibilities,

had the tough task of finding

a new director for Bumblebee.

Lorenzo had worked with
Michael on the previous

Transformers movies and
was a huge admirer of his.

But the script for Bumblebee

with this coming of age story

didn't call for the Michael
Bay typical explosions

within the explosions
style that he's known for.

The script for
Bumblebee needed a director

adept at helming
a character-driven movie

with an emotional core,

and there was one film that
caught the eye

of di Bonaventura and Spielberg.

Well, hello, Kubo.

Kubo and the Two Strings

is about a boy who has magical
powers,

that goes on a quest to find

his late father's magical armor.

It's a sweet little film
about self-discovery,

family, and the power of
storytelling.

And it was directed by Travis
Knight.

Travis, the son
of Nike founder, Phil Knight,

took an early interest
in stop motion animation

and quickly rose up the
ranks of Will Vinton Studios,

a company his father invested
in,

and later rebranded as Laika.

Rumors were that he
was kind of a rich kid

and had somehow got this job.

But the
rumors were laid to rest

when the Travis Knight directed
Kubo

earned an Oscar nomination for
the studio.

Show off.

Travis brought a lot
of heart to that film.

It was very personal, warm, intimate.

It was a coming of age story,

and that's exactly what he
pitched to di Bonaventura,

an emotionally resonant
center to Bumblebee

which was right in line
with the studio's vision.

Like me?

Yes, strong, and clever, and
funny,

and oh so handsome.

Di Bonaventura wanted
Bumblebee's story

to be character driven and
contained but not small,

Travis agreed and they made a
deal.

With the
film's director hired,

di Bonaventura turned his
attention

to landing a different type of
director,

director of photography, Enrique
Chediak.

Lorenzo called me and said,

"I have a movie that you might
like."

But I was a little bit reluctant

to go into the Transformers
world.

And then I asked my
agent, "Who is director?"

And he said, "Travis Knight,"

which two weeks before I saw
Kubo

with my daughter, and we loved
it.

I met Travis, and we hit it off.

And Lorenzo was very
adamant that I do the movie,

so, I ended up working on
Transformers.

Lorenzo had his
man.

We've been looking for you for
so long.

And his man's
right-hand man.

But the young director
would face an uphill battle.

Michael has done such a great
job,

those are just big shoes to
fill.

He would be
doing it with half the budget.

You want to think that, oh,
Transformers, big budget,

ILM, must have had the money.

Everything was pretty tight.

Fledgling
director, Travis Knight,

was taking over the
Transformers franchise

from a director so synonymous

with creating the universe...

Action!

...it was named
after him.

The Bay verse.

Hand tasked with
re-imagining

a beloved character, and a
theme.

It's a story about a boy and
his car.

That Bay had
driven to Box Office success.

- Oh my God.
- Trust me,

he's a kick-ass driver.

But now
Knight would have to do it

with a sum that paled in
comparison to his predecessors.

They're 200 plus.

The Last
Knight's budget was 217 million

to be exact.

So how would Travis step
out of the long shadow

cast by Michael Bay, and
transform Transformers

into something of his own?

And Travis needed to find a lead

with an it factor of her own.

I'm the person for it.

With a Golden
Globe nomination at 17

and a standout performance in
True Grit.

Look here, I need a pony,

and I'll pay $10 for one of
them.

Hailee Steinfeld
was the perfect choice.

It made me feel like there was
gonna be

more to the movie than we'd seen
before

because of that particular
casting choice.

You know, she's only gotten
bigger,

she was big then, and
has only gotten bigger.

Gross, Ron.

There is a vulnerability
that she's a girl

that has a lot of issues with
her mother.

So I'm sorry if that
makes things harder,

but in 10 months from now,

you won't even have to deal with
me.

And suddenly
what brings happiness

and joy to her life is
Bumblebee.

With their lead
locked in,

Knight turns to a very
different kind of star,

someone who could bring
both menace and muscle.

I think coming from the
wrestling world,

I think he just comes from hard
work.

So he would always be on set,

he would never go back to his
trailer.

I always remember that.

He'd sit on set until he was up,

you don't always see that.

That's not a bad day at the
office.

And standing beside
John,

as head of sector seven,
General Whalen was.

Emmy award-winning actor,
Glynn Turman,

and let that cover it all, okay?

John, what I liked about
his work ethic was that

as staunch as he was, he didn't
want it to be so serious.

Just stop.

We all kind of took our lead

where the tone of the movie was,

and this is a movie that's about
fun.

Have you lost your damn mind?

With the human cast
in place,

how would Travis set
himself apart from Bay

and make his mark on the
Transformers themselves?

I have an idea.

It's always a risk if
you're gonna take something

that has a very
established visual language

and kind of change it.

Michael Bay was the key person

developing the Camaro
Bumblebee for the first movie,

but I have no idea why he
didn't want to use the VW.

But Travis
did want to use the VW.

What?

No longer a Camaro.

The yellow Beetle, I want it.

Bold plan was
reviving the look of G1 in a
time

when old Beetles were
a teenager's first car.

Oh my God, thank you so much.
I love you.

Casting Bumblebee as a
Volkswagen Beetle

was a stroke of genius, honestly.

Remember, this is a prequel,

so it needs to have this
80s sort of aesthetic to it.

The car itself looks more
approachable, looks more
friendly,

looks more relatable and human.

You still in there?

Bumblebee was definitely
awesome as a Camaro,

and he was the cool
kid, but you know what?

Bumblebee as a bug was a
little more like a lot of us

as we were growing up.

Like, I was a VW Beetle
more than I was a Camaro.

So how would
the new director's approach

differ from his predecessor?

You know, there's a
whole chapter in here

about how people who smile more
often

actually have more friends.

They're very different styles.

Michael's a bit more bombastic,

he expected more intuition.

Travis knows what he
wants and he tells you.

And we're working on some of

the different battle masks for
him, what it could be like.

He replied in an email,
"These are just horrible.

These are just the worst."

That was it.

Relying less
on Bay verse-style spectacle,

the production had to find a way

to make intimate scenes more
realistic.

Travis is a very hands-on,
very practically minded guy

who would use CG when it needs
to be CG, and I loved that.

I mean, he's the owner of Laika
Animation.

He's an animator who animates
with stop motion puppets.

We commissioned the upper
torso of that character,

practically made and practically
painted.

I think somewhere behind me I've
got

the sample yellow spheres
of the pristine paint

and the banged up paint.

It was great.

With Bumblebee
now practically assembled,

the voiceless little bugger
needed a way to communicate.

Do you speak?

Luckily, the
production had a secret weapon.

I am the Idaho state champion
pantomime.

Optimus Mime.

Is there a nerdier thing to
win?

But it's all in the little
things he does with his body

and the way he moves his face.

It has to be so expressive.

He's gotta say everything.

For even more
inspiration,

Jason took off his black and
white shirt,

to black and white cinema
from Hollywood's silent era.

We looked at Charlie
Chaplin,

we looked at Buster Keaton,

'cause they had no other
recourse either.

They had no voice.

They had to make it all
work with their face.

Are you scared?

It's all in the eyes.

When Bay was directing,

the actors couldn't even
see the Transformers' eyes.

Trust me, I said.

He made a 16-foot
fiberglass scale of Bumblebee

that was mostly just
beneficial for camera blocking

and to showcase how massive in
scale he was from the movies.

Knight's practical Bumblebee

had large expressive light up
eyes.

He was smaller, rounder,
more approachable.

It made him more human.

I don't know what he
is, but he's my friend,

A friend
and an acting partner.

This practical approach really
helped

with the performances as well,

particularly with actors
like Hailee Steinfeld

who had to have more intimate
scenes with Bumblebee.

The relationship felt
more real and genuine.

Thank you for...

...making me feel
like me again.

Hailee Steinfeld is
such an amazing actress,

when you put her opposite the
robot,

she brought it to life.

From practical
robots,

production turned their
attention

to practical locations
in Northern California.

One of the big references was
the 80s.

He was looking for a house.

So we went to look, and look,

and look for a lot of locations
and we didn't find anything.

So we found an empty spot
close to San Francisco.

So we built the exterior
of the house in the garage

in this beautiful location,

and we built the house and the
garage in the studio as well.

Hmm, that looks
familiar.

Yes, a lot of Amblin
references,

a lot of Amblin references.

But would
Travis stick to the script?

Travis, I think, wanted
to do his own thing.

Enrique was doing most of the
work.

He didn't know what a
live action movie is like.

Or would he and
Lorenzo

wind up on different pages?

Travis wanted more
the relationship movie

and Lorenzo wanted more the
action movie.

Bumblebee
Director, Travis Knight,

was stepping into big shoes.

Those are big shoes to fill,

like, you're taking over
a franchise of a guy that,

I mean, just knows it.

Although
Michael Bay had stepped away

from the director's chair for
Bumblebee,

he stepped up as a producer,

and the crew fully expected
another Bayhem production.

Michael has done such a great
job

and I had went in there
thinking,

"Oh man, this is gonna even be
bigger."

Well...

Let's do this.

It was really the opposite.

And the opposite
approach

was apparent right from the
opening scene.

Well, I'd come up with
all these crazy ideas,

jumping and all this authentic
action.

You gotta make it bigger,
it's gotta be cool,

but it's gotta be cooler than
the last.

Sounds
Transformery.

And he didn't want any of that.
He was like,

"No, we're not going,
we're not going that big."

Travis, I think, wanted
to do his own thing.

The comparisons
to Michael Bay were inevitable,

but Travis had no option
but to be, well, Travis,

and doing his own thing meant
falling back

on his experience as an
animator.

Travis was completely
different speed.

Everything was very meticulous.

Animation is just a different
animal.

I mean, they're doing
everything frame by frame,

but it's very mapped out,

it's almost over mapped out.

While Travis
worked with the actors,

longtime Bay collaborator, di
Bonaventura,

would have to keep an
eagle eye on everything.

He was always at every
production meeting,

he was very hands-on.

He's every day on the set.

He's every day giving notes.

He's every day meeting with the
writers.

Because Lorenzo is
not doing that to Bay,

there's a different dynamic,
you know what I mean?

And even
though Lorenzo hired Travis

to direct an intimate coming of
age story.

Travis wanted more
the relationship movie.

He was beginning to
question

whether the film had all
the right ingredients

for the Transformers franchise.

Lorenzo wanted a little bit
more of the

Transformers fights, the
action movie.

Action versus
intimacy,

director versus producer.

And you can also feel
the excitement of Travis

when he was with the robot and
the girl.

And he was a little less excited

when he was doing the big
things,

and Lorenzo was super excited.

I didn't do much with Travis
at all.

The big battle at the end
was a big dry dock area.

It was a lot of stuff with the
helicopter,

and Enrique was doing most of
the work.

Were Lorenzo and
Travis

coming apart at the seams?

There was always on the set
that thing that you can feel.

But it speaks a lot that
Lorenzo hired Travis.

It was two aspects of
Bumblebee,

one was the relationship
between the girl and the robot,

and the other one was saving the
world,

there was a balance.

Travis and Lorenzo, they
reached a nice compromise.

As principal
photography

for Bumblebee wrapped
in November of 2017.

Goodbye, Bumblebee.

The baton was
passing to ILM

who were working with a smaller
budget

on a less robot heavy movie.

There was definitely a
difference there

and that difference was that we
did tend

to respect the designs,
which were less pieces.

It was way less robots
that we were designing,

a much more focused experience.

And you would think, "Well,
great,

you just saved a bunch of money,
right?"

It costs a million dollars

to transform one of these
characters.

It will bankrupt us to
animate this many robots.

So less
robots, less stress, right?

No,

because now everybody's looking

at those pieces very
specifically.

If you just got all the pieces

and it's like 19 of them,

then you better know what you're
doing with every one of those.

That intricate detail
in those soft spaces

is really what makes this design

of Transformer movie robots
stand out.

But not every
Bumblebee scene made the cut.

Travis was constantly pulling
inspiration

from Spielberg's playbook.

A lot of Amblin references.

And while some
of those ideas felt fresh,

others were things the
audience had seen before.

He puts his energy in the
house

and a few of those appliances
started getting alive, yeah.

I think there was a
washing machine or something,

or a dishwasher.

Like Charlie's
forehead, the scene was cut,

because it was deemed to be a
direct copy

of "Revenge of the Fallen."

But one of the most dramatic
changes

came straight from the top.

Lorenzo is a producer in the
movie,

he comes with great pedigree
from running a studio.

Lorenzo decided
he'd see

what a test audience would make

of an early cut of Bumblebee

and the feedback was...

...not good.

Audiences loved John Cena,

so Lorenzo ordered a whole new
scene

to be written and shot
for the start of the film.

Basically the re-shoots
were because of him,

to tell his story right at the
beginning.

And I think they had to
humanize him a little bit,

a little bit more.

Oh, I hate you.

That hurts because I love you.

Sort of fitting a character
to the actor's strengths

is always a good idea if
it works in the story,

and I think it did.

Danny, I know I look stupid,
but--

Test
audiences were also shocked

about the lack of Transformers
in a Transformers movie.

I mean, Bumblebee

was always kind of a
different movie in a way

that we were missing a
little chunk of action.

It was Lorenzo di Bonaventura
that actually came forward,

and said, "This would really
help if we can add some action

at the beginning of the movie
so that people get like,

this is a Transformers movie."

It was very late in the
schedule.

It was impossible.

But it was also Christmas
morning,

because we were going
to be given the reigns

to create Cybertron.

Even if Prime
couldn't save Cybertron,

it was up to ILM to
create a Cybertron scene

that might save the movie.

There was no other choice,

we had to say yes and we had to
succeed.

There was some budget given

'cause we had to pull people
back.

It wasn't extravagant.

Bumblebee would
now start

with the scene depicting
the Civil War on Cybertron.

But would it be enough to
make the film a success

at the Box Office?

We will fight on,

but we must find refuge first.

And usher in a
new post Michael Bay world

led by Travis Knight.

You couldn't say no to
it and you couldn't fail.

Bumblebee
landed in December of 2018,

but would Travis Knight's
heartfelt story,

coupled with Lorenzo di
Bonaventura's spectacle,

resonate with audiences?

There was a sweetness
about the Bumblebee movie.

I think you connect in a way

that you maybe don't with
some of the Michael Bay films.

I know the sequence on
Cybertron from Bumblebee

is a massive fan favorite.

Contact with the Capitol.

There's too many of them.

What it turned into is every
scene

that we wanted to see as kids.

On December 21st,
2018,

Bumblebee rolled into
theaters and was a hit,

with worldwide theatrical
earnings of $468 million,

and an estimated production
budget of less than 135 million.

Bumblebee was a critical

and financial success for
Paramount.

The movie did make enough
to keep the franchise rolling.

Paramount said, "Okay, cool,
you can go,

you can do your own thing."

But the studio
wanted them

doing Marvel's thing.

Paramount's bid to build
the Transformers universe

to rival Marvel's turned into
a soft mid-series reboot,

one that got the franchise back
on track.

So in early 2020,

Paramount Studios brought in
writers,

Joby Harold and James Vanderbilt
to each write a script

with one directive,

to expand the universe
to include characters

from the Transformers: Beast
Wars series from the 90s.

All right, he's coming back.

The studio
expanded the universe

with new factions like the
Maximals,

the core of Beast Wars

who landed on prehistoric earth

and transformed into well, beasts.

Cheedor, maximize.

It was the first time
we did 3D animation

in a Transformers Hasbro
property.

The TV show was
crude,

but it was a mountain
of new IP that Paramount

intended to mine for its
present day universe.

Paramount went with Joby
Harold's script

that preserved the
Bumblebee tone and timeline,

and introduced a new
breed of Transformers.

Who wants some?

Beast Wars
was in,

but the stars of Bumblebee
were out.

Rise of the Beast
takes place seven years

after Bumblebee

so the cast didn't include
actors

such as Hailee or John Cena.

Well, at least
Paramount had locked in

Travis to direct,

and he was set to roll
cameras in early 2020,

until he wasn't.

Knight's vision clashed
with the franchises',

so he returned to Laika
to focus on animation,

but the studio landed a hot new
director

in Steven Caple Jr.

This is the first film that he
had any knowledge

- of visual effects in.
- Whoops.

Nothing before Transformers
franchise that is detrimental.

But he was fresh
off of helming "Creed II"

which took home a worldwide
gross of $214 million,

with a measly production
budget of 50 million,

just like Bumblebee it was
a financial and critical hit.

Steven could do drama,

but could he recreate Bay Era
action?

Which is exactly what
producer di Bonaventura

thought was missing from
Bumblebee

so their new director
brought in his writers

to blow up the script, in a good
way.

They told us they wanted
to have a bold vision

with Transformers and open
it up, make it a bigger scope,

add a little bit more world
building.

A lot more world
building.

The producers wanted
Rise of the Beasts

to build on Bumblebee

and connect to the Bay Films.

It was an explosive page one
rewrite

that would take time to craft.

We looked at it as
kind of an origin story

to Transformers growing to love
Earth,

and wanting to also bring
in a lot of elements

from the 1986 version of
Transformers.

Look, it's Unicron.

Specifically a
planetary-size transformer

from the G1 cartoon who eats
planets.

Unicron, when can we bring
Unicron in?

How can we see more of this?

Awaken, almighty Unicron.

Your time has come.

Rise of the Beasts
was becoming a beast,

all the world building, world
devouring,

and bridging and sequel,
prequeling, and homaging,

was a lot to cram into a
120 something page script.

Well, at least with ILM,

they wouldn't have to
worry about visual effects.

We couldn't do it.

Paramount wanted to
premiere

Rise of the Beasts in June of
2022,

which only gave ILM
one year to do the VFX.

ILM was super busy
at that point as well,

coming in on off the back of
COVID.

They basically turned
around and said like,

"We're too busy.
The budget's not big enough.

We don't have enough time to do
it."

You know, you just couldn't
quite make it all work.

ILM wouldn't bite
on the condensed schedule,

but luckily over in London...

...the Moving Picture Company
was ready to take it on.

Beast Wars, I didn't really
look into it too much.

Maybe they weren't
ready.

I was aware of it,

but not something that
I was a huge fan of.

Transformers
had a new director

and a new script that
was bursting at the seams

with a new VFX company in
London.

Still the producers had a clear
direction.

So they wanted a bit of a
balance

between what Michael Bay
had done for his franchise

and Bumblebee as well.

What are you?

So it was a bit of a
mishmash between the both

to try and get that sweet spot.

The producers were
convinced

that the sweet spot between
explosions

and a heartfelt storyline

would make Rise of the Beasts a
hit.

But the timeline for the
VFX wasn't sweet at all.

We were actually briefed
saying that,

"You have one year to complete
it,"

which is a very, very condensed
timeline

for a film of that scale.

These are my fellow Maximals.

The Maximals were very
interesting

because they were the thing
that made this film unique.

Our leader, Optimus Primal.

That name rings a
bell.

- Autobots, roll out.
- Roll out.

So how did MPC come
up

with such an OP design for
Optimus Primal?

Basically, we were told, giant
gorilla,

and he's almost always
in his actual beast mode.

As for the human
actors,

Dominique Fishback was cast as

the budding young
archaeologist, Elena Wallace.

Are you even pushing?

Yeah, I'm pushing.

And Anthony
Ramos would play Noah Diaz.

Don't forget to laugh
at all their jokes.

White people love that shit.

But with
all of these additions,

there was a major subtraction
from Rise of the Beasts.

Well, well, who have we got
here?

For this film, they
wanted to change it up,

they didn't want Bumblebee
in the spotlight,

they wanted Mirage to be in the
spotlight.

The name's Mirage.

There you go, now we're friends.

Pete Davidson, wow.

Optimus, hey man, you looking
good.

I think it's informative
casting of like,

who can we hire to be legit
excited

about being in a Transformers
movie,

and would bring in a new crowd
of people?

Mirage not
Bumblebee,

was the new face of the
franchise.

I like that, I like it a lot.

I'd seen Pete Davidson
on Saturday Night Live,

but I was like, oh, you know,
Mirage,

he's a wise cracker,

but his character has some real
gravitas,

especially towards the end,

what's that gonna look like?

Autobots, roll out.

Pete Davidson brought this
different kind of energy

and enthusiasm to the character.

He didn't treat ET like
this.

If they wanted to
keep the emotional heart

and weight of the Bumblebee
story into Beast Wars

they negated that the second
they hired

a comedian to do one liners.

Cross my spark and hope to
die.

Wow, that was corny
when I said it out loud.

The fifth
installment

of the Transformers franchise,

Rise of the Beasts had big
and small shoes to fill.

I think that we have an
opportunity here

to start a anew and
develop our relationship.

So it was a little bit of
both,

they wanted what Michael Bay had
done

and what Knight had done
for Bumblebee as well.

But there was some
confusion

as to what it actually was.

We knew this was the
continuation of The Transformers

but also somewhat of a reboot
as well.

So, sequel?
Reboot?

Or that mysterious gray area
where studios like to live?

Canon for Bumblebee
and also the 2007 series.

It needed to be seven
years after Bumblebee

but we had to keep the
continuity of the Bay Verse.

It was a little bit
of a gray area for us,

which was a bit weird.

What the hell am I looking at?

Rise of the Beasts

needed to thread a rather narrow
needle

to tie the Transformers
universes together,

and finally launch its cinematic
universe.

♪ Cash rules everything around
me C.R.E.A.M. get ♪

Principal photography began

on June 7th, 2021 in Los
Angeles,

then moved to New York City,

technically it was Montreal
doubling as Brooklyn.

And just a few weeks into
filming,

Paramount announced
that Rise of the Beasts

would premiere the following
year on June 24th, 2022.

None of the Transformers
films in history

were made in one year,

so I don't know why they thought
this one

they would be able to make in
one year.

After wrapping
in New York, Canada,

the cast and crew flew to
Peru in early October of 2021,

on time and on schedule.

Crew morale was high heading
into Peru

and it looked like they were
gonna make their deadline.

Even with no VFX
experience,

the looming one year
deadline seemed attainable

for new director, Steven.

He even had master of the Bay
Verse,

executive producer
Michael Bay in his corner.

But the weather was
unpredictable

and shut down filming for days
on end.

It keeps raining and stopping
and raining and stopping.

And what threatened
to sink the production

was the unpredictable storyline.

Every week there was a new
script.

Every week there were
new scenes that we never--

So we would plan for
something and the next week,

everything I planned to the
trash,

let's plan for something else.

The production
was falling behind

and the changes were
coming from di Bonaventura.

I think Lorenzo wanted a
bigger scope.

Maximize.

He want a lot of
robots, much more robots.

He want a lot of fights,

and much closer to a Michael Bay
movie.

It was huge, it was much bigger
than,

much bigger than Bumblebee.

The original
plan for Rise of the Beasts

was to keep what worked in
Bumblebee.

Thank you you for giving me my
voice.

And then
take the action up a notch

to satisfy the Bay Verse fans.

I have come here to kick ass.

But somewhere along the line,

they just cranked up the
spectacle.

It was very complicated.

At the end we did it, but it was
not easy,

it was not easy at all.

Miraculously,
Rise of the Beasts

completed filming on October
20th, 2021,

on time, but over budget.

The script changes blew up the
production,

but they had even greater
financial consequences

for the VFX House back in
London, MPC.

These things are costly, you
know?

You can change one simple
thing in the story,

and for you it might just be
writing

a couple lines of script,
but down the line,

that could be tens of millions
of dollars in VFX changes.

MPC had
just one year to complete

the visual effects for
Rise of the Beasts.

So spending time and
money on deleted scenes

put the 2022 Premier in serious
jeopardy.

Meanwhile, there were
other bigger problems.

The big plane.

Oh God.

Stratosphere, he was by
far our biggest character.

Lord of the skies.

He was actually such a big
character

that our technology systems
couldn't actually handle him.

There was actually a lot of back
and forth

between us and the software team

to upgrade our technology
systems

to actually pump him through.

Yeah, I'm walking to Peru.

Deleted scenes
and costly tech upgrades

were a painful setback for MPC,

but Michelle Yeoh's Metallic
Golden Eagle was pure agony.

Airazor was the biggest
pain for this entire film.

She had the least developed
concept art,

just basically a very rough
sketch.

What is this symbol?

It is the Maximal crest,
it is all that I have left.

We spent a lot of time
redesigning

the concept art that we were
given,

and no one was happy with it

because she looked like
a big golden pigeon.

But I'll be all right.

I personally spent nearly a
year

just on that one character.

But MPC had only
one year to do all of the VFX.

As we started building the
characters

and we started doing the
things that we needed to do,

the studio, Paramount, actually
realized

that this is not possible
in one year.

In November of
2021,

Paramount announced
that Rise of the Beasts

would be delayed a full
year to June, 2023.

This caused a ripple effect
across

Paramount's release schedule,

and when the film limped
into theaters that summer,

COVID still had the world on
pause.

Ticket sales were down for all
the studios

as moviegoers stayed home and
stayed safe.

Director Steven had survived
the Peruvian Jungle,

massive script changes
and unrealistic deadlines.

Everything that he
went through to actually

get this thing made is
an incredible success

on that part from the
financial standpoint.

But ultimately,
Rise of the Beasts

couldn't survive its target
audience.

Fans didn't really care about
the direction it was going,

and I don't think Michael Bay
even cared

about the direction that
it was going either.

I didn't hear anything about
Michael Bay

or Steven's involvement in this
film,

and I think that really shows
in the Box Office as well.

The Transformers will
return after these messages.

Rise of the Beasts
was a Bumblebee sequel

meant to reboot the franchise,

connect the Bay verse to the
Bumble verse,

and finally launch its
own cinematic universe.

Paramount pinned the future

of the franchise on Rise of
the Beasts.

They needed the movie to
do a lot of things at once,

and I think that was the
cause of the downfall.

So with lofty
goals,

Rise of the Beasts
premiered on June 9th, 2023,

but grossed just 442 million
worldwide.

Close to what Bumblebee
grossed

but on a Bay budget of 200
million,

it was the lowest
grossing live action film

in franchise history.

And there were reasons,

starting with no Michael
at the helm.

He knows how to make a
film that is marketable,

a massive blockbuster.

He makes his movies for
the movie-going audience.

Wants to entertain,

and he's relentless about that.

Jacques, make it more
interesting,

your first frame, it's
pretty boring, dude.

He's a master at
creating these experiences.

Just wondering what the
you're doing standing around.

Let's get to work, okay?

This film, I don't think
we can say the same thing.

By Bay Verse standards,

Rise of the Beasts was
a financial failure.

The response was "meh."

I mean, nobody hated it,
but nobody loved it either.

They didn't really
have a super clear vision

for what they wanted.

It was a lot of movie,
I think, for two hours.

The movie
aimed to unify the series

while resurrecting characters
from a 90s franchise.

Who are you?

And an earth eating
villain

from the G1 universe.

All these things didn't
really make much sense,

didn't really carry much weight.

Like, more, more, more,
maybe isn't always better.

Everybody just kept getting,
some would say, greedy.

"If we just throw more and more
in,

we have more opportunity
to do more stuff."

And they rushed it,
that's a big mistake.

I never should have
taken us so far from home.

The lackluster Box
Office,

and lack of fan interest,

plus Paramount's $8 billion
merger with Skydance

signaled trouble for the
franchise

and the end of Paramount's hopes

for the Transformers cinematic
universe.

Still a fan of Transformers,

but the movie universe just
doesn't have the story,

connective tissue that I
look for in a franchise.

The most successful cinematic
universes

are universes where there's
a lot of different things

happening in different
worlds, different characters,

completely different things,
and you can tie them together.

There has to be an overarching
theme

across all of the films,

which I think Transformers
doesn't have.

You haven't heard the last of
Megatron.

So is the
dream of a live action

Transformers universe...

That's probably just a dumb
old dream.

...really over?

Hang on to your dreams, Chip.

The future is built on dreams.

Hang on.

I think they need a very
strong reboot,

nothing to do with any of the
films that currently exist,

get a fresh take on the
franchise.

You might wanna wait a little
while,

see how the industry kind of
shifts.

Hasbro has learned it's
constant change

that we're living in.

So, you've
gotta measure the market,

and know when's the next time
you get to reinvent yourself.

Because after all,

transformation is what
endeared us to the toys,

the cartoon, and the
comics in the first place.

It's about the stuff
of life, transformation.

Wait, I still function .

Transforming is what we do.

That is what we wish to do as
children.

Every kid recognizes that.

That's the appeal.

And the toys are great.

The secret of its success
is basically the toy itself

and the storyline that's
been developed around it

that pulls people in and
they just wanna know

more and more
about these crazy characters.

We grew up on 'em. Our kids
are gonna grow up on 'em.

Their kids are gonna
grow up on 'em.

And it speaks to the strength of

the initial characters

that were conceived
in the cartoon.

It's over, Prime.

I never thought and ever
imagined back in the 1980s

when I was working on this

that I would still be talking
about it 40 years later.

We didn't know that it would
have a life

that would go on decade after
decade.

I realize that whatever
it was we did, it resonated.

The Transformers
rolled out in the 80s,

and four decades later
they're still trucking.

A creative achievement shared by
everyone

who shaped the Transformers
universe along the way.

A lot of people take credit

for creating The Transformers

and the truth is that a lot
of people had a part in it.

Whatever we did at the
beginning,

whatever we infected that with,
it stuck,

'cause everybody seemed
to love it and care,

and make it mean something.

And so, good job, everybody.