We need the Cthulhu dance, dammit!

Spread the word.

And they put him in command of a ship, fresh out of the academy? Not as a junior officer or anything? Oookay then.

The Enterprise is built at Area 51?

This sounds like a ton of crap.

more than once in the theatres?

OKKKKKKKKK, you're opinion probably counts to your moms but not here.

Yeah. I'm pretty mature around here.

Don't allow people to dream that a starship captain could be an exemplary individual.

Turn everything into a sour joke.

This is an attempt to reboot with TEEN crap.

The time travel is a cover for when the movie, inevitably, flops.

If you can't be faithful to the Trek ethos, then produce SPACE TEENS and be honest about it.

Someone should donkeypunch JJ for this. Only nekkid green bitch can save this flick now.

They release a ton of disparaging remarks about this movie - including Plant-Boy and Lying Bastard's as above. We all froth at the mouth and get mightily pissed over this news. We wait for the movie. Instead of sucking outright, it ends up a tepid pissbucket of a remake - but because we are expecting a slurryload of warm shit, we all re-appraise what we think of the movie, everyone goes "It's not the shitstorm we expected", it does well opening weekend and for a few weeks after... and JJ and Paramount make just enough dollar to make more of these fucking abominations.

DO NOT LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS MOVIE! THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT! THAT'S WHAT THEY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT!!!!!

But as far as the movie, from what I can tell, it jumps from on point in time to another, so it's not a High School Trek Musical. I doubt we'll see the crew at the acadamy togther. But, again, who knows? I'm looking forward to it with much fear and trepidation. The biggest thing this has going for it is Nimoy's involvement. Believe me, he doesn't need the paycheck. On the strength of that alone, I will give a chance. Nimoy is very protective of Spock and Star Trek.

Section 31 movie, FTW

So I guess the Enterprise was built using parts from the alien ships collected and hidden at Area 51. Maybe they even used the alien ship from INDEPENDENCE DAY that was kept hidden in Area 51.

But I'm gonna stick with my first feeling: it's just a lame fan impersonating his idol.

Although you really nailed the whole problem with this incarnation of Trek and covered it all with "It's A Wonderful Kirk." But keep Old Spock. He should be the one who gets his wings instead of Clarence.

So any yahoo dickhead can go back in time and fuck things up. It's time to drop that lazy plot device.

Apologies for the mistakenly doing a double post.

Fuck this movie!

BTW I'm partial to DS9 but that two parter is one of my Trek favorites. It wouldn't hurt JJ and this new Trek team to do a viewing of those episodes.

Going to need a moment or two alone, boys.

A. Important

B. Not Important

C. A Tool

D. A Closet Homosexual

I'll wait for The Island 2 instead.

madness!

Hey Yack what's doin up north?

Are Harve Bennet and Nicholas Meyer still alive? How's about getting them to make this movie so it can be ... what's that word I'm looking for ... oh yeah .. good.

or using his MIND BULLETS to KILL UNBELIEVERS!

Damn you Bob Orci.

I just hope the next movie the autobots wont be portrayed as stupidly as they were there.

It would take a lot to make even the biggest Trekkies excited about this. So people are understandably skeptical.

Just think about it for a moment. The Romulan empire wants to kill one human (Kirk) to eliminate the threat he poses ??? Why don't they instead go back in time, and fuckin' steralize the planet Earth so no humans arise, thus eliminating competition from a technologically advanced, intelligent species.

Wouldn't that make more sense?

Not anyone smokin' hot because too many of you will get too excited.

The older doctor who mixes drinks for Pike was only in the first pilot, which was later recycled for the two-parter where Spock takes over the Enterprise to take the disabled Pike to the planet with the dudes with the big heads.

That movie seriously blew chunks and stripped almost all that was cool from it.Turned the transformers into a joke. Characters being able to created out of thin air with the "allspark" cheapened the existence of Transformers. And being able to transform into whatever vehicle they drive past cheapened the fact that they transform.

And Optimus Prime saying "My Bad" was just the tip of the iceberg in where you went wrong with that character. First he wasn't a freaking clutz in the cartoon. This is the first scene where he's walking around and hes a bumbling idiot. COME ON.

Actually even bigger mistake was that the fight scene where bumblebee saved Sam. You didn't even see it happen. So basically afterwards we NEEDED the scene where Sam says "WOW he's my protector??" Show don't tell. Isn't that what they say?

I know you are some dude with a screenname, I don't give a shit.

a mouth is a mouth.

I can't WAIT to see this jackass get pilloried on the big screen.

The Allspark location is imprinted on grandpa WITWICKYS GLASSES? How stupid is that?

Optimus Prime and the Decepticons find the glasses by seeing a jpeg of them on E-bay??? I mean, I can think of a hundred better ways.

HOW MANY FUCKING MOVIES are going to tell us that Area-51 is the cause of their; alien lifeform, super technology, etc..

I didn't like how Megatron was handled here either. Megatron was found by humans and thats where humans got all our technology from? Reverse engineered from Megatron? Way to try and shoehorn in your idea.

I would have preferred the Autobots and Decepticons simply come here and consider our technology primitive. I would also prefer that the transformers alternate modes were simply a disguise. If you looked at the parts inside it was 100% alien. Its one thing to buy them wanting to disguise themselves as vehicles but to buy them wanting to BECOME that vehicle makes it kind of lame in my opinion. It shouldn't affect their robot mode so much. And there should NOT be an engine under the hood that a 16 year old girl would understand and be able to fix.

HACKING PLAGIARIST

Atleast then you will have better reviews. If the people or kids or middle america or WHOEVER you're writing for are too dumb then they will grow into it. THERE IS A MIDDLE GROUND.

With very few exceptions, almost all revolutionary, pioneering, technological discoveries and inventions, in the modern era, have been by the USA.

Here is a list of Nobel Prize winners in Physics by Americans:

1907, Physics, Albert A. Michelson 1923, Physics, Robert A. Millikan 1927, Physics, Arthur H. Compton 1936, Physics, Carl D. Anderson 1937, Physics, Clinton Davisson 1939, Physics, Ernest Lawrence 1943, Physics, Otto Stern 1944, Physics, Isidor Isaac Rabi 1946, Physics, Percy W. Bridgman 1952, Physics, Felix Bloch 1952, Physics, E. M. Purcell 1955, Physics, Willis E. Lamb 1955, Physics, Polykarp Kusch 1956, Physics, John Bardeen 1956, Physics, Walter H. Brattain 1956, Physics, William B. Shockley 1959, Physics, Emilio Segrè 1959, Physics, Owen Chamberlain 1960, Physics, Donald A. Glaser 1961, Physics, Robert Hofstadter 1963, Physics, Eugene Wigner 1963, Physics, Maria Goeppert-Mayer 1964, Physics, Charles H. Townes 1965, Physics, Richard P. Feynman 1965, Physics, Julian Schwinger 1967, Physics, Hans Bethe 1968, Physics, Luis Alvarez 1969, Physics, Murray Gell-Mann 1972, Physics, John Bardeen 1972, Physics, Leon N. Cooper 1972, Physics, Robert Schrieffer 1973, Physics, Ivar Giaever 1975, Physics, James Rainwater 1976, Physics, Burton Richter 1976, Physics, Samuel C. C. Ting 1977, Physics, John H. van Vleck 1977, Physics, Philip W. Anderson 1978, Physics, Arno Penzias 1978, Physics, Robert Woodrow Wilson 1979, Physics, Sheldon Glashow 1979, Physics, Steven Weinberg 1980, Physics, James Cronin 1980, Physics, Val Fitch 1981, Physics, Arthur L. Schawlow 1981, Physics, Nicolaas Bloembergen 1982, Physics, Kenneth G. Wilson 1983, Physics, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar 1983, Physics, William A. Fowler 1988, Physics, Melvin Schwartz 1988, Physics, Jack Steinberger 1988, Physics, Leon M. Lederman 1989, Physics, Hans G. Dehmelt 1989, Physics, Norman F. Ramsey 1990, Physics, Jerome I. Friedman 1990, Physics, Henry W. Kendall 1993, Physics, Joseph H. Taylor Jr. 1993, Physics, Russell A. Hulse 1994, Physics, Clifford G. Shull 1995, Physics, Martin L. Perl 1995, Physics, Frederick Reines 1996, Physics, Douglas D. Osheroff 1996, Physics, Robert C. Richardson 1996, Physics, David M. Lee 1997, Physics, Steven Chu 1997, Physics, William D. Phillips 1998, Physics, Robert B. Laughlin 1998, Physics, Daniel C. Tsui 2000, Physics, Jack S. Kilby 2001, Physics, Carl E. Wieman 2001, Physics, Eric A. Cornell 2002, Physics, Riccardo Giacconi 2002, Physics, Raymond Davis Jr. 2003, Physics, Alexei A. Abrikosov (also Russia) 2004, Physics, David J. Gross 2004, Physics, H. David Politzer 2004, Physics, Frank Wilczek 2005, Physics, Roy J. Glauber 2005, Physics, John L. Hall 2006, Physics, John C. Mather 2006, Physics, George F. Smoot

Gany, I don't know how much Netflix pays Michael Bay for sending me a disc, but he didn't make much from me, I assure you. I would never pay $24 to see Transformers, and it won't happen with Star Trek either, at least this one. You're good people, Gany - we just disagree on certain movies. It's all good.

Picard and Janeway were awesome.

BTW, are you watching MIB 2 for more story ideas?

Considering all this unique fan involvement. Nice to know what has actually been achieved from this.

it better works for a scene back on Cybertron but doesn't have to be exclusive to there. A scene where the autobots are walking through unknown territory and in pitch black... they reach a dead end and start hearing things transform all around them. you know things are transforming just from the sound. but the lights are on the autobots, then a group of decepticons (or maybe mysterious autobots) come to emerge from the darkness. OK back to Star Trek :D

Gene Roddenberry's Liberal worldview obviously influenced his Star Trek stories and character creations. Do you and Kurtzman hold similar values and use them as a guide to continue Roddenberry's tradition?

As for the supposed script leak of Star Trek, if you say that most of that leak is bunk, then I do believe you. However, I would like to ask if you feel you wrote Star Trek's script more intelligently than Transformers, or did you fill it with obvious contrivences as well?

Your personal politics are your business, but I bring up the issue because this movie you're writing is a direct precursor to Roddenberry's world, his characters. I just want to know if thought is being given to bridge your and Kurtzman's world to his, and politics was the defining theme for his world.

P.S I second BSB's request for a three breasted female alien. She doesn't need to be purple though.

On another note, do you get more chicks as "Bob" or "Roberto"?

Also, I don't mean to spend so much time on Transformers, its just that that film is your most recent. I could just as easily harp about your other works, and script doctoring or no, there were endless cliches abound.

I guess what I'm really asking is, whose fault is it that such plot points, characterizations, and dialogue exist? Do the producers or directors tell you what scenes/people/lines to write and you are simply forced to present such ideas in as good a light as possible, or are you permitted more carte blanche?

The Island cliches, as was pointed out before me, was the entire plotline itself, though, you did actually answer that it wasn't you're fault--you were just doctoring the script. Other Island cliches: the sympathetic night watchmen/janitor (a plus when it comes to figuring a way out for our prisoners), the insertion of a car chase sequence when one wasn't required, and the obvious "duplicate is a turncoat" point that exists in nearly every past film that has dealt with cloning, duplication, or altered personalities (total recall, sixth day, and a plethora of Star Trek episodes--including their most recent film).

I think if you realized this from the beginning Bay might have realized that the CARS on earth should have been portrayed as Robots that turned into machines that looked a lot like cars as opposed to Cars that turned into things that look a lot like robots (transformers)....

I hope Stallone comes on AICN again and does a TB with us. It's kinda fun talking to people in the industry rather than everyone just abusing one another.

True, I did congratulate him on MI:3, but then, I felt he deserved it.

Sheesh, what an undignified and horribly anticlimatic macguffin. Why dont we have Indiana Jones hunt for an old friend's class ring that has the map to the Ark Of The Covenant as opposed to, you know, the ark. Wouldn't that be so much better?

Oh, he has his reasons, as he is wont to point out. To paraphrase, "it's the studio pressure," or its "well, I was just called in to script doctor," or the classic, "nobody is perfect." The problem here lies in this man's abilities. So far, this man seems to stick to sequels, prequels, and two Bay films, and what does he have to show for it? At what point can he point to a singular idea as his own? A genuine plot device that really hasn't been tried in at least recent memory? Where is the originality? That is why he is labled a hack and a representative of the all-too obvious problem in Hollywood. Though he is obviously successful, the fact remains that there is an elephant in this man's living room and its name is Hackneyed.

We've got time travel (thats right--again), The Guardian of Forever, and the Kobyashi Maru. And for cliches? Well, how about Kirk sleeping with another student to reprogram the Maru scenario? Want another? Well, get this, the Dean of the academy is unhappy with Kirk and wants to get him expelled! Jesus wept, I think that was from Animal House, wasn't it? Hackneyed isn't the word for this tripe...

And yet, the product based on such plans triples the studio's investment. Leads me to think that the really valuable part (meaning, the part that provides a return on the investment) of a movie is the marketing and special effects.

Anyway, Boborci, if you are the real Bob Orci, it's very decent of you to come here and lift the curtain a bit w/r/t the projects you've been on. And even if you aren't the real Bob Orci (one never can tell on these here internets), you're entertaining. Thanks!

Anyway, on the importance of a script--could you give a semi-concrete example of some piece of scripting that you guys abandoned/avoided would have negatively impacted the movie? I think that would be helpful (for me at least) in understanding the role you writers play in something like transformers.

That said, when we view the other films you've written, there does seem to be a pattern here. Your films seem to exhibet more cliches than most other films, more contrivences than others, and, frankly, less defined characterization as well. Legend of Zoro, The Island, Transformers, and MI:3 contained a LOT of cliches and worn-out plot points. Yes, MI:3 was saved due to a more livlier plot and better acting, but you still threw in the same type of villain that was used in the first two movies--a defective agent! The refusal to show what was in the rabbit's foot was a neat idea, but it, too wasn't exactly original: it was used in Ronin not 7 years ago.

Your other films, however, just get bogged down by too much cliche and really strain the credibility beyond the breaking point.

Autobots hiding in a backyard while Mom thinks Sam is Masturbating.

Bumblebee pees on someone

Those goddamned glasses!

Seriously, Bob, the script read like something one of my highschool kids would have written.

Looking forward to the movie! :)

In all seriousness, thanks again for answering so many questions here.

I'm sorry, Bob, but I really do have to get some sleep for tommorrow, and frankly, your blantantly shallow grasp at story crafting is really starting to bug me. After spending the past few hours here, I can honestly say that my sympathy for the WGA in general has eroded to the point of apathy. Have a good night and I wish you well in your career.

whenever he comes on here as 'phartegodd1' or whatever handle he has, he just can't string an insult together.. cocaine, kids.. cocaine.

cool.

Not some dead rock world. A planet that had layers upon layers of metal and mechanical structures. That at its very core was Vector Sigma, the computer which brought life to all Transformers. "Before Cybertron was, I WAS". That shit was cool. Let's meet characters like Alpha Trion (Prime's creator) Please, NO MORE ALLSPARK CHARACTERS. Maybe the Allspark could just be a fragment of Vector Sigma. But no more Allspark life, blech.. These characters born from the allspark instantly have no soul. Please drop all of that. Let the Allspark die. As it should. It sucked. For real.

When considering the Constructicons and Devastator...look at the storyline from the cartoon and where they came from. Omega Supreme and the Constructicons and their quarrel. It is actually pretty cool as inconsistent as it is, fans have come up with interesting ways of explaining it. We can inform you. Same with Combaticons. They have a backstory that is equally as cool as the Constructicons. I mean these guys were in a Decepticons detention center thats how bad they were.

People are gonna want the dinobots too... I liked how they were created in the cartoon because it was something different. They were created on Earth and without an actual "spark" but I think we've had too much of this characters created on the fly garb in the first movie and now to help clean it up we need to go and make sure any character we bring in is a character that has been around for millions of years back on Cybertron.... or maybe they all fled Cybertron and his on another planet..TLuckily in the comic book the Dinobots HAD been around millions of years. We need to feel like there is history to these characters. we need the Autobots to WANT to go back to their homeworld too. Not just want to blend in here on earth cause there lives were meaningless before this place. If we feel like their lives are meaningfull now on earth then who were they before?......well, who cares in that case....

grow up.

That reason? My first guess would be that Orci and company believe that they need to plug in an established known artifact (Area 51) to make people connect with the story or the enterprise more.

NO Orci. No..... It is TOO obvious. And just makes the whole thing seem silly. If you are calling it Area 51. I'd just go right ahead and erase that name when the writers strike is over just to save your ass a bit from a BUTTLOAD of criticism. Once again good form in coming and listening here. But make it worth something. Do something about a potential mess.

Can someone translate this for me?

""""Area 51

by Boborci Jan 5th, 2008 03:27:17 PM

Let's see. Area 51 is a place where we supposedly keep aliens and spacecraft A SECRET. In Star Trek, earth KNOWS there are spaceships and aliens. You might've even heard of one of them. His name is Mr. SPOCK. You do the math.""""

Or perhaps he'll just ignore your shit as well.

Or if he is he is putting in a legendary plant performance

Now go make Bobby some lunch, Mrs. Orci.

It will develop battered wife syndrome, though.

Gany, you're sounding like a raving loon. Imagine the fuel it would take to launch a destroyer into space. Take a gander at Nasa's own website and look up space station construction. The shit is built in space for all the reasons given to you already. You can argue that Star Trek is fictional and in that world, there's an abundant energy source. But then that just means Abrams is taking the easy way out and making Star Trek just another brainless movie. Something it should not be.

Throughout the series and movies, Star Trek always looked upon the past as filled with mistakes that, somewhere in the future, Mankind acknowledged and corrected. Well, we should make it that time. Start acknowledging flaws and start correcting them.

It's disappointing that the studio didn't want them to talk because of what I said above. We super geek fans are fans of Transformers because of the robot characters. They were awesome and the mythology was awesome. Focusing on human beings took the focus away from the thing that makes Transformers unique.

Hey Yackster wassah.

As for the Area 51 idea: uh, yeah, right, JarJar; better than a secret base called Atlantis in the Bermuda Triangle. Whoops. Bob might put that in the next Transformers.

Don't disrupt continuity or canon, but don't adhere slavishly in some ways and goof it up in other ways.

Is there anything that you are not excited about?

It's not like you should be a misery like the rest of us, you just seem to explode in your pants about everything.

why do i gotta ruin everything with all the sex talk?

ds9 movie, please

"You have to ask yourself, fellow punk dude, like, feeling lucky. Yo yo you."