Transformers One Director Reveals Original Script Details, Says It Was “Very General”

SUMMARY

• Josh Cooley revealed that Transformers One had a hilarious first script , but it was not the best script for the film.
• The Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson starrer originally had a story that intrigued Cooley, but was ultimately not something that fit the story that Cooley wanted to tell.
• Transformers One is unique, in that it follows Optimus Prime before he was in possession of the Matrix of Leadership, slaving away as an Energon miner called Orion Pax.

Transformers One is shaping up to be one of the best entries of the franchise. The fully animated film seeks to tell the story of Megatron and Optimus Prime before they were the mythic figures in the Transformers universe, leading their respective factions for the control of Cybertron.

Chris Hemsworth in Transformers One (2024) || Paramount Pictures

The director of the film, Josh Cooley, sat done with io9 to talk about the film and the various iterations that the script went through. A lot of the initial responses that the trailer got were about how the film felt a little too campy. However, reviews from critics have been ever-positive. This is ironic, given that Cooley revealed that the first script for the film that he came across was more ‘jokey’ as well.

Josh Cooley talked about his first impressions when coming on board the project

Transformers One || Paramoutn Animation

Starring heavy hitters like Brian Tyree Henry, Chris Hemsworth, and Scarlett Johansson, there seems to be a lot of love going around for Transformers One. The film has managed to garner a lot of support from the the critics community. Josh Cooley sat down io9 to talk about the film’s earlier drafts, which had a markedly different tone. In fact, he said that the tone of the earlier drafts is what got him interested in the project in the first place. He said:

I’d say overall, yeah. It was basically them going to find the Matrix and then becoming enemies at the end. It was very general. The tone was much different. The very first version of it was way more jokey. And that’s kind of what grabbed my attention first was like, “Oh, this is totally different from what I expected.”

And ultimately that version just wasn’t right. It was like, “Oh, this just doesn’t feel like Transformers.” So it was finding that balance as well with the tone and making sure it’s not just completely dark, but also not just completely making fun of itself or anything like that.

Transformers One‘s marketing has been all over the place, with multiple critics saying that the campaigns don’t do the film itself justice. Chris Hemsworth is being praised for his work as Orion Pax and Optimus Prime, becoming one of the few actors who are worthy to carry the legacy of the legendary Peter Cullen.

Transformers One follows Optimus Prime from a time that is seldom seen on screen

Chris Hemsworth is the voice of Optimus Prime in the animated film Transformers One || Paramount Animation

There have been a lot of iterations of Optimus Prime on screen, but seldom have characters seen the Autobot leader before he had the matrix of leadership. Orion Pax, an Energon miner in this version of the character, is usually depicted as a clerk in the Iacon records. Megatron on the other hand, is sometimes depicted as a gladiator, serving at the pleasure of the city elites. Megatron is actually a name he takes up to honor the Primes gone by, specifically Megatronus Prime.

The film tweaks both these origin stories to be majorly different, but it keeps the friendship that Megatron and Orion Pax have. Given that, it seems that Orion Pax will remain so for the majority of the film, making it one of the few feature-length endeavors that feature the character before he receives the Matrix of Leadership.

Transformers One will hit theatres on September 20th, 2024.

Written by Anuraag Chatterjee

Articles Published: 941

Anuraag Chatterjee, Web Content Writer
With a passion for writing fiction and non fiction content, Anuraag is a Media Science graduate with 2 year's experience with Marketing and Content, with 3 published poetry anthologies. Anuraag holds a Bacherlor's degree in Arts with a focus on Communication and Media Studies.