by Abhi Parasher
“It is still a bit depressed. It’s definitely come back a little bit post COVID, but I don’t think we can declare victory just yet,” Lorenzo di Bonaventura, famed producer of the Transformers film series, says about the current state of cinema. We did speak with him pre Barbenheimer, but the comments still stand when it comes to franchises, it seems.
Di Bonaventura’s latest instalment in the Transformers franchise, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is among a group of recent films that has struggled with cinema attendance following the pandemic, with the film collecting $433 million at the worldwide box office, ranking it as the lowest grossing Transformers film. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One suffered a similar fate, with the film ranking as the 5th highest box office performer in a series of seven films.
“The communal experience is still important to people, but I think people just got out of the habit of going,” says di Bonaventura. “I am more and more conscious of people watching these films on streaming services and on smaller screens. Part of our storytelling now is how to make a story that is meant for the big screen communicate in a similar way on the smaller screen.”
Where Transformers may potentially struggle, is delivering on the larger-than-life robots that rely heavily on the theatre experience to achieve the awe-inspiring impact.
“I think there is a loss of immediacy in any of these visual effect-heavy films when they are viewed on a smaller screen,” explains di Bonaventura. “But our approach to CG in Transformers has always been different to most. We don’t generally do CG worlds, we do CG characters in real worlds, so there is an element of reality still within it. I think that grounds it, so regardless of what size of screen you watch it on, you can still relate to that world.”
The Transformers franchise also has to deal with the interruption caused by Artificial Intelligence, which will disrupt their workflow in years to come.
“Visual effects have always used some sort of rudimentary CG, where the computer essentially works off an if/then formula, which I believe is a form of AI,” says di Bonaventura. “But I would say, for me personally, I am anti-AI. I don’t believe AI will ever feel human. I think that AI will always be involved in some way with CG, but hopefully it never takes over the creative elements.”
Regardless of the creative potential of AI, the system has already proved its effectiveness when it comes to the technical aspects of filmmaking.
“I think it will take over some jobs,” di Bonaventura admits. “I don’t know if I know which jobs those will be, but it will inevitably take over some.”
Looking to the future of the franchise, di Bonaventura is optimistic, with a string of both animated and live-action films planned in the coming years.
“We have an animated film already in production which will come out next fall. That will go back into the mythology of Transformers, into the original relationship of who were then Orion Pax and D-16, and then went on to become Optimus Prime and Megatron. It explains the split between the two. Hopefully, after that, we’ll get a sequel done for this movie [Transformers: Rise of the Beasts]. We’ve introduced a bunch of new characters in this one. We don’t know what we’re doing with them yet, but what will be very similar, is that they will partner up with the robots to beat the bad guy. That is probably the most reductive way to put it.”
Partnering with robots, the story trope that is evident in every Transformers film, may be more pertinent today than ever before.
“What was always thematically a big part of the franchise is this idea that we are not doing it right,” explains di Bonaventura. “We have to figure out, not only how to get along, but actually work together. That is what these characters have to do. It was a conscious element that is relevant to today’s environment.”
With Transformers quickly becoming one of the longest-running film franchises, the team behind the stories will always keep their target demographic as a priority.
“It’s first and foremost meant for the fans,” says di Bonaventura. “Then you hope you get more than the fans. You have to be careful there with the storytelling, because if you tell a story that only the fans understand, then you don’t get to expand your audience. It’s funny though, Transformers seems to defy what you would expect from a franchise like this. You would think it is for children, but our main audience is actually between 17 and 50. There is a huge percentage of our audience in their 40s and 50s, and I think that is in part because people grew up with the Transformers films.”
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ~ BUY OR RENT ON DIGITAL
