Transformers 3 Casting Call

[grahamthomson]

Which Transformers would you like to see added to the cast for Transformers 3, and what roles would they play in the plot?

You can pick 5 new Autobots and 12 new Decepticons.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Ooh, lovely. Thanks, Graham!

Autobots:
1. Prowl - stuffy but very sensible and intelligent second-in-command for Prime
2. Wheeljack - mad inventor
3. Hound - scout, jeep, paired up with human soldiers, or perhaps driven by...
4. Metalhawk - a humanoid Pretender to mix with Shockwave's human slaves, accompanied by...
5. Catilla - a Pretender that looks like a domestic cat but turns into a robot cat, to infiltrate the Decepticons - he probably bags a couple of Insecticons or bird Deceps during the course of the film
NB No mass-shifting for Pretenders.

The Decepticons, I would make 100% airborne, to give them a different feel from the forces in the first two films, and get back to their roots:
Shockwave (of course, taking over from Megatron)
A proper Decepticon air force for Starscream to lead into battle - the film won't be long enough to flesh out their personalities, but we'll recognise them as:
- Skywarp - gets to teleport at least once
- Thundercracker - gets to do a sonic boom
- Ramjet - gets to crash into human jets
- Thrust - makes building fall down by flying past it
- Dirge - makes noise that makes human pilots freeze up
And a squad of scouts/spies/infiltrators in the form of small flying robotic animals:
- Ratbat (leader)
- Buzzsaw
- Laserbeak
- Bombshell - plants cerebro-shells in a few humans
- Kickback - kicks down a few doors in grasshopper mode
- Shrapnel - electrical infiltration

Martin

[Shockprowl]

A fine list above.

I think my list would be very similar.

I do wonder what a Grimlock would be like live action? Could he be done as a T-Rex? Tricky.

Deffo Prowl and Wheeljack. Sunstreaker to partner Sideswipe. Grimlock as I already said.

Shockwave HAS to be in it, as a powerfull rival to Megatron if not full-blown 'Con leader. And yes yes yes to an airforce of Seekers. I must be allowed to call them Seekers if Bay is making the film!

Oh and bring back Jazz.


(Unicron? How would that go down on the big screen?)

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jul 30, 2009 18:32:30 GMT Shockprowl said:

I must be allowed to call them Seekers if Bay is making the film!

Not really. (Well, you're _allowed_ to, but...)

The term 'Seekers' has been used in Maximum Dinobots to refer to Ravage and Laserbeak.

The term 'Seekers' has been used in ROTF to refer to Jetfire and other TFs that turned into old-fashioned vehicles, and who were seeking the Matrix.

Still never been used in official TF media as a term referring to the Decepticon Strike Planes.

Sorry.

Martin

[Kingoji]

Um... I'm pretty sure that Furman has at least once used "Seeker" to refer to Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. During Dreamwave. Maybe in the War Within. I'mma hafta check.

EDIT: Yep, during the War Within. The raid on Altihex, Bumblebee reports to Kup that they have Seekers inbound, being Thundercracker and Skywarp.

[grahamthomson]

Martin, I am intrigued by your inclusion of Wheeljack... what sort of activities would he be getting up to in the film?

I can't fault your choices... and a 1:1 scale Catilla would be fantastic.

In fact, since they got away with Alice in ROTF the audience would be prepared to accept animal-mode Pretenders... so the way is already paved for some Beast Wars-like "organic" disguise modes.

[jameso]

Jul 30, 2009 18:44:38 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Jul 30, 2009 18:32:30 GMT Shockprowl said:

I must be allowed to call them Seekers if Bay is making the film!

Not really. (Well, you're _allowed_ to, but...)

The term 'Seekers' has been used in Maximum Dinobots to refer to Ravage and Laserbeak.

The term 'Seekers' has been used in ROTF to refer to Jetfire and other TFs that turned into old-fashioned vehicles, and who were seeking the Matrix.

Still never been used in official TF media as a term referring to the Decepticon Strike Planes.

It's a major part of the last issue of All Hail Mefgatron (last of its regular storyline anyway). In a bad way.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Ah. Well, I sit corrected.

Jul 31, 2009 7:07:54 GMT @grahamthomson said:

Martin, I am intrigued by your inclusion of Wheeljack... what sort of activities would he be getting up to in the film?

Well, with Autobot cars against Decepticon jet fighters, they're going to need something to even the odds. B.A. needs to modify the van. (I.e. Prime needs a Combat Deck trailer with anti-aircraft capability.)

Re: Grimlock. Have all those who want to see the Dinobots properly thought it through? Surely we've seen in ROTF what happens when you have thick Autobots for humour. And if you're going to have a robot dinosaur, surely you want him to be a bad guy so he can stomp some cities. Wouldn't Trypticon work a lot better on film? If it has to be Grimlock, I think he should be a bad guy until the very end.

Martin

[jameso]

According to the latest issue of Empire, apparently Michael Bay hates the Dinobots

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Too highbrow for him, probably.

Been thinking about how I would begin the third film, keeping it consistent in style to the first two but with a better plot and less annoying stuff. Here's what I came up with for the first 10 minutes:

Film opens with Optimus Prime voiceover saying something like:

"It is two years since the Decepticons last attacked the Earth, and with all means of creating new Transformer life now gone, we surviving Autobots have endeavoured to make a new home for ourselves here in secret amongst the humans, and live out their days in peace." (Montage showing vehicle mode Autobots in various peaceful roles - Prime towing a goods lorry, Ironhide with Captain Lennox's young family, Ratchet ferrying patients, Bumblebee with Sam and Mikaela, Prowl in a police chase running down criminals, Hound on a military exercise, and Wheeljack/Sideswipe/Jolt in some suitable role. We also see shots of Metalhawk and Catilla in human and cat forms, with no explanation of why we are showing this man and cat. No mention of the Twins or Arcee who apparently bought the farm in ROTF.)

Voiceover concludes with:

"It was too good to last."

We see a military command centre with everyone springing into action as alerts come in of a new Decepticon incursion. A general gives an order, and the signal goes out to all the Autobots to respond. We see each Autobot in turn drop what he is doing and speed to the rendezvous point. Ratchet ignores the order because he's busy saving a human life.

The vehicular Autobots minus Ratchet all converge on the location where the Decepticon has landed, along with Lennox and NEST, and with suitable rousing Steve Jablonsky music to back them up. None has spoken yet on-screen in the film. The Autobots transform impressively, and the audience expects something like the rout of Demolishor and Sideways in Chicago in ROTF. Prowl silently signals how the warriors should spread out and encircle their prey.

They close in on the Decepticon. It is Shockwave. His weapons are by his sides, his head turned down in contemplation. He seems uninterested in the eight Autobots pointing their guns at him. There are portentous storm clouds with thunder and lightning.

Cut to US F-22s flying in as air support for the Autobots. Suddenly there are other jets in their midst, paralysing the human pilots with fear, teleporting, doing sonic booms, ramming into them and what-not. They are completely wiped out, and the six jets take their place flying in towards where Shockwave and the Autobots are assembled.

The NEST humans have lost communications. As they try to re-establish their links with air support and base, Shockwave looks up and we see his one eye for the first time. Then the world goes to hell as missiles from the Decepticon jets begin to rain down on them, destroying Autobots and NEST vehicles alike. In the calm centre of the storm, Shockwave transforms and blasts Prime, taking him out with one shot.

It's all over brutally quickly. None of the Autobots get a chance to fight back. The Decepticons jets transform and land, and Shockwave also transforms. Any humans who survive are rounded up into a group. Starscream and others move to kill the fallen Autobots, but Shockwave stops them, saying, "We need their Sparks intact."

As the Decepticons depart with the wrecked Autobots and captive humans, the late arrivals - Ratchet and Metalhawk - watch helplessly from a distance.

End of Act One, and for balance we must inevitably go now to a lighter daytime scene involving the Witwickies...

Martin

[Shockprowl]

Love it, Martin, love it. Let's hope Bay is reading.


Re Grimlock. I think there would be a great danger of Bay turning them into comic characters. I'd imagined him comming later on in a movie as an Autobot super wearrior, unleshed in desperation by Prime.

I'd also love to see Devastator trashing a city.

[grahamthomson]

Crumbs, Martin, that opening has me hooked!

Now, let's see what you do with the Witwicky scene...

[Grand Moff Muffin]

OK, the light relief Witwicky scene would go something like this (trying to keep style moderately in keeping with previous films):

Sam is home for vacation.

Sam's mum has befriended a stray cat that comes to their garden. Lot's of silly baby talk from her to said cat.

Bird does droppings on Sam's dad's car, really annoying him. Cat chases birds away. Sam's dad praises cat, and tells Mojo how he's a waste of space in comparison.

Mojo is terrified of the cat. Witwickies mock Mojo for his cowardice. "He's just a cat, not Catilla the Hun!" When humans not looking, cat gives Mojo evil glowing eyes stare, and he runs yelping away.

Up in orbit, Soundwave sends a message: "Soundwave to Buzzsaw and Laserbeak. Shockwave confirms Witwicky guardian has been neutralised. Commence Operation: Persecution."

Things have settled down at the Witwickies. Sam has been cajoled into hosing the bird mess off his dad's car. Suddenly he comes under attack by a couple of birds (seagulls?). He tries to fight them off with hose. Birds retreat, then Pretender-shift into robot birds and begin firing lasers and what-not. Usual Witwicky-garden-trashing chaos ensues.

Sam takes cover in car. Buzzsaw starts carving it up. Catilla Pretender-shifts to robot cat mode and leaps on Buzzsaw, going for the jugular and ripping his throat out. Laserbeak takes pot-shots, but Catilla fires back with cannon mounted on back, and following a direct hit and a squawk of pain, Laserbeak retreats.

Sam gets out of car. Catilla is back in furry cat mode and the dead Buzzsaw has reverted to feathered bird mode. The cat is dismembering the bird. Sam's dad comes out and wants to know what the hell has happened to his car. Sam points from the car to the cat and bird and back again but is lost for words.

We zoom in and see that the cat has an Autobot symbol on its collar.

Martin

[Shockprowl]

Bloody hell, will someone please give Martin a job writing movies!!!!!

[legios]

Those are both pretty good scenes there Martin. The opening especially - it would work very well as a statement of "here is the new villian, and by the way he is not to be trifled with". It certainly would break the format of keeping the main villian mostly off-stage for the majority of the film.

Karl

[primenova]

Martin's Catilla idea is perfect & fits in with the tech we have seen in the movie's.

[charlesrocketboy]

Jul 30, 2009 12:38:43 GMT @grahamthomson said:

12 new Decepticons.

I am so putting Sky-Byte and the Predacon Trio in as long-suffering Decepticon grunt workers.

[Hero]

I can picture Sky Lynx working in the movie-verse myself.

Martin's house-cat idea is the best. Its how I would have portrayed Ravage anyway (and casted Zip in the role).

Will post again later with my choices.

[Bogatan]

When I saw the title of the thread, my mind jumped first to human casting, not robots. Shows were I feel the focus has been with the first two. Still given that the humans will again no doubt be the focus I want Bruce Campbell.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

Autobots:

1: Thunder Clash - another Autobot commander type. Takes issue with Prime and his actions.
2: Cosmos - damaged Autobot, UFO shape means he has been held by the Americans for quite some time.
3: Spanner - Autobot scientist and made to make a Space Bridge Network.
4: Hound - tracker
5: Mirage - partner to Hound, dismissive of the humans, can't understand why they ally with them.

I shall ponder the Decepticons.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Oct 16, 2009 21:04:14 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

2: Cosmos - damaged Autobot, UFO shape means he has been held by the Americans for quite some time.

Interesting... could almost be a double bluff in a way... an alien disguised as an alien's spaceship... or how a human might imagine an alien's spaceship... or maybe his saucer mode _is_ a bona fide disguise mode from the last planet he visited.

The idea of the Americans holding Cosmos makes me think of 'Independence Day', which is a film that has already popped into my mind once during the course of this thread. It occurred to me to have Darkwing and Dreadwind among the Decep jets routing the human jets, only a couple of Will Smith-type US pilot survive and somehow manage to bring down D & D with them. The US pilots scramble out of their parachutes and approach the downed Decepticons, but when they open the 'cockpits' the two injured Decepticons assimilate them into their bodies, and become sort-of Powermasters, with the Decepticon and human brains competing for dominance for the rest of the film.

5: Mirage - partner to Hound, dismissive of the humans, can't understand why they ally with them.

I'm guessing you'd make Hound's partner transform into something a little more practical than a Formula-1 car though?

Martin

[Andy Turnbull]

Yes I'd have him as something a bit more practical than a formula one car. I'd make him something like a McLaren F1, nice nod to the roots and a very expensive and rare car.

Andy

[grahamthomson]

I had an idle thought for introducing the Dinobots (and Shockwave) into TF3.

What if, during the time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, Shockwave came to test The Fallen's Sun Harvester machine? Grimlock et al could reformat into dinosaur-looking robots along the likes of Scorponok and Ravage to stop him.

In fact, a brief activation of the harvester could even result in killing the sky long enough to extinctify the planet's dinosaurs.

Michael Bay would like that.

[dyrl]

I'm not going to give a list, however:

Metroplex: having an entire human city transform into Metroplex would be amazing in a live action movie.

You could make the Decepticons construct Trypticon - the movie could actually start with..say...Mission city being 'destroyed' as it Transformed into Trypticon.

It could turn out that for the past 10 years or whatever, the Decepticons had been secretly working on making it Transform.

So then, to counter it, the humans vacate another city and the Autobots make Metroplex.

Or something like that...

Pete

[primenova]

I hope they dont get Ray PArk doing a voice - he's the worst part of X-men.