"Transformers: Awakening of the Beast" Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura Doing something that no one has ever done in movie history [Director's Interview Vol.337]

It's been 16 years since "Transformers" (2007), which revolutionized robot movies. A new series begins this summer. This time, the live-action version of the "Beast Wars" series, which is also popular as the animated version of "Transformers". On Rotten Tomatoes, it achieved an audience score of 91% (as of July 24, 2023), the highest in the series.

The series was created by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a major Hollywood producer, along with Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. He started his career as a movie studio executive and eventually rose to become president of Warner Bros., where he worked on more than 130 films, including ``Harry Potter'' and ``The matrix.'' After leaving Warner, he started Di Bonaventura Pictures, which has since produced more than 40 films, with worldwide box office revenue exceeding $7 billion. Mr. Bonaventura is truly a hit maker, but how did he create the latest work in the series, ``Transformers: Awakening of the Beast''? I spoke to him.

“Transformers/Awakening of the Beast” synopsis

One day, Noah, a young man living in New York, gets trapped in a mysterious car. After a car chase with the police, the car transforms into a robot life form called a ``Transformer,'' and Noah gets caught up in the battle. Unicron, the worst scourge in the universe that was thought to be a myth, swallows and devours all the stars, and has set out to make Earth his next target. Optimus Prime and the Autobots are in a desperate situation when they are attacked by Unicron's brutal advance team, Scourge, and beasts that transform into animals appear before them. Will the Autobots, Beasts, and humans be able to change the fate of Earth's destruction by Unicron?

Index

• A director who is good at exploring characters
• Producer/Michael Bay role
• Do something that no one has ever done in movie history

A director who is good at exploring characters

Q: The ``Transformers'' series directed by Michael Bay has a quality that is comparable even 16 years after the first movie. Isn't there a lot of pressure to expand on this legendary series?

Bonaventura: The audience has a strong attachment to the series, and there's a lot of pressure to make sure they like it. Also, since this is a work with a very large budget, the studio is very strict about it (lol). When asked, "Are you sure? Is it really going to be a hit?!", you have to proudly say, "It's okay!" (Actually, I don't know because it's a gamble, but...). Those two things put a lot of pressure on me.

“Transformers: Beast Awakening” ©2023 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. HASBRO, TRANSFORMERS AND ALL RELATED CHARACTERS ARE TRADEMARKS OF HASBRO.©2023 HASBRO

Q: `` Creed II '' (2018), directed by Stephen Caple Jr., was amazing, and I think appointing him as director was a good decision. What do you think about Caple?

Bonaventura: I also really liked Creed II , his debut feature film The Land (16), and the TV drama he did before that. I noticed that he was good at drawing characters in depth. The previous work, `` Bumblebee '' (2018), focused more on characters than on action, with an emotional and familiar story, and this time it is necessary to continue that tradition and delve deeper into the characters. Caple was the perfect director.

Moreover, he has been a big fan of ``Beast Wars'' since he was a child, and it feels like ``Beast Wars'' and ``Transformers'' are in his DNA. They also came up with a lot of ideas for this work (lol). I think it was the perfect offer.

Producer/Michael Bay role