‘Transformers One’ Director Josh Cooley on the Influence of Art Deco, ‘Ben-Hur’ and the Original 1986 Animated Film
variety.comTodd Gilchrist editor For at least one generation of “Transformers” fans, the death of Optimus Prime in the 1986 animated feature “The Transformers: The Movie” was a formative moviegoing experience, if not a fully traumatic one.
The backlash to Hasbro’s decision to kill off the Autobot leader to make room for new toys was so swift and loud that it largely kept the franchise relegated to kids entertainment until Michael Bay forced it to grow up — to adolescence, anyway — with his series of live-action films.
With the release of “Transformers One,” director Josh Cooley hopes to find a middle ground between the animated series’ childish adventures and Bay’s sophomoric hijinks as he explores the events that transformed starry-eyed droids Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) into future archenemies Optimus Prime and Megatron.
Along for the ride are B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), soon to become Bumblebee, and Elita-1 (Scarlett Johanson) as they navigate an age in the history of Cybertron that turns out to be anything but golden.
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