I’m not sure if this news should be taken as good or bad, but it seems writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are officially off Transformers 3. The dynamic duo of writing are probably two of the biggest names in Hollywood scribe circles these days having penned the fist two Transformers movies and this past Summer’s Star Trek reboot.
When asked why they are leaving Orci stated: “The main reason we would move on is because we risk getting stale and comfortable. If you only sing one song for too long, you miss the opportunity to sing news songs. We’ll see.”
With the pairs departure all the writing duties at this point fall to Ehren Kruger along with whatever Michael Bay wants to contribute (more explosions!). This may not be such a good thing as Kruger is attributed for adding a lot of the comedy to the scripts which I felt did a disservice to the overall tone and pace of the story.
Getting back to my good/bad comment above, I think it’s both. It’s bad in the sense if there was anything positive about either movie (of which there was little as far as I can tell) it probably came from these two writers. It’s bad because without Kurtzman and Orci the third Transformers film can only go downhill from here. Not that it has far to go to hit rock bottom.
On the flip side, this will certainly free up the pair’s time to work on the sequel to Star Trek and continue producing their hit show Fringe. Even in Kurtzman and Orci’s absence I’m certain the next Transformers installment will go onto make a load of cash which makes it even more surprising the two would make an exit. That said, I have to respect them for turning down a huge payday in favor of their craft. My hat is off to you both.
Transformers 3 hits theaters July 1, 2011.
There’s been quite a lot of buzz around Heath Ledger’s final role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus. Not only is it the Academy Award winning actor’s swan song, but this is writer/director Terry Gilliam’s (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) first film in four years, since The Brothers Grimm, starring Ledger and Matt Damon.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of 
Brian Bendis’ career is one that most writers and lovers of comics can surely envy. He’s taken on some of the most well-known characters in the Marvel Universe and created some of the most well-liked characters and stories in comics. One such original work is Powers, which he co-created with writer/artist Michael Avon Oeming. Powers has been a popular title and now, according to the official marvel press release, its so popular they are bringing it back for another, brand new series.
“Build a band and rock the universe.”
This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt have to go it alone again. They take on a bunch of new, and returning, topics including Fantastic Fest in Austin, new television shows including Cougar Town, Community, FlashForward and returning shows like The Big Bang Theory, Lost, Fringe and Dollhouse.