‘Transformers’ Shared Universe: Writer Akiva Goldsman Reveals The Franchise Is Borrowing From The Best
Every day, it seems like the Transformers franchise is taking on a new life of its own. Rather than work on the franchise on a film-by-film basis, as they’ve been doing for the past four Transformers flicks, they’ve opted to open up a writer’s room to help plan out sequels, prequels, and spinoffs to the billion-dollar franchise. This writer’s room, led by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, consists of such talent as Zak Penn (Incredible Hulk), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man), and a lot more. While these writers aren’t guaranteed to actually pen the scripts for future Transformers flicks, they are meant to give the franchise a more cohesive feel. Considering many of the writers on board have worked on TV shows and shared universes, they have plenty of experience in making that happen.
All this aside, there are still a lot of questions regarding the future of the Transformers movies. Luckily, Deadline had a chance to catch up with Akiva Goldsman and discuss his plans for the blockbuster franchise and how they plan to take things from here on out.
“There is such reciprocity between TV and movies now, that we’re borrowing this from TV. I got a taste of this from JJ Abrams when I came in to write an episode of Fringe, and then Jeff Pinkner let me hang around for four years like the drunk uncle. The whole process of the story room was really delightful, and we are seeing it more in movies as this moves toward serialized storytelling. There are good rooms around town, including the Monsters Room at Universal, the Star Wars room, and of course, at Marvel. We’re trying to beg, borrow and steal from the best of them, and gathered a group of folks interested in developing and broadening this franchise. There is a central corridor of movies that has been proceeding quite well, but our challenge will be to answer, where do we go from here?”
Goldsman’s approach isn’t exactly unique, but it is heartening. With shared universes being such a big thing, it makes sense that Transformers would borrow from the likes of Marvel, who has proven time and again that a shared universe can work in the film medium. Can the same kind of television-esque method be applied successfully to Transformers by Akiva Goldsman and his team? We’ll have to wait and see.
What do you think of Akiva Goldsman and his approach to the future of the franchise? Is the shared universe method the right way to go for Transformers? Let us know your thoughts below!
[Image Credits: Transformers Wikia, Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images]
