Don Murphy on Casting Peter Cullen

Transformers producer Don Murphy has once again shared some of his viewpoints on Transformers the movie over on his forum. Most interesting bit (for me anyway) is "I got to spend the early part of the week with a lifesize, gigantic Megatron which was surreal and so cool you’re all jealous." Yep I am jealous.

and then the Cullen thing. As you all know when we started this grand experiment two years ago, Cullen and Welker were the ONLY Thing you gave me any consensus on. I’m serious, because I read everything you write, no matter how shitty. And if someone suggested something, half of you would shout it down. And the ONLY thing you overwhelmingly agreed on was that Prime should sound like Prime and Megatron should sound like Megatron. Which makes sense, especially since both actors are alive and well. So I pushed your agenda. As some of you know, that was not an easy one. My own partner advocated celebrity voices. Then I showed him the results of your guys’ input and he immediately joined the bandwagon. Ian Bryce came to the show well in to the process and saw the results and supported immediately. John Rogers needed no prodding god bless his pointed head. One or two Dreamworks executives also supported from relatively early on. The interesting thing is that the director never gave an opinion any way. He had a lot of us telling him that there was no choice, really, the fans had spoken. But he had Skorponok and a lot of people at Dreamworks and Paramount FIGHTING actively not to do it. The forces of Cullen kept the push going. Several weeks he came in and auditioned, which was all anyone could ask the director to do. Then he came back for a meeting. And now, Optimus Prime has his voice back. And there is much rejoicing.

before you negativists start asking wotup with Welker, hey we are all working on it. Fact is I was told he was harder to arrange audition time with and his schedule--- hell I don’t know. No one wants Cullen without Welker. I will not say that the director has made the decision because he hasn’t.

My gut tells me that Michael Bay weighs every decision QUITE STRONGLY. You have to remember that. HE finally okayed Cullen once HE was convinced. And should Welker happen, as I know everyone hopes, it will happen when he can make the decision. Which, quite frankly, is not an urgent decision to make at this moment.

The entire post is worth reading, click here. Does this mean when it was reported that Peter Cullen auditioned for the role and Don Murphy said "don't put words in my mouth", he was covering up this reveal for comic-con? If so, bravo man. Good play.

Optimus Prime Voice Announcement Video

During the San Diego Comic Con, towards the end of the Paramount/Stardust panel, TF Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura had a voice recording of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime saying "...in chaos and those of us who follow freedom. All of you here must join me in this fight for freedom next July 4th. I am Optimus Prime. Transform, roll out."

The video is here from blackfilm.com.

(pic source)

The Voice of Optimus Prime is ....

Peter Cullen!

At the San Diego Comic-Con Paramount Panel, right at the end, it was announced who would be the voice of Optimus Prime for the Transformers movie in 2007. In a generous nod to the fans, Peter Cullen, the original voice of OP for a generation of TransFans, has been cast as the voice.

I was expecting news such as a few images, discussions of the plot, maybe a reveal of the Transformers in the movie. Nice information but mostly shrug worthy. Instead you get something that for Transformers fans probably caused a collective orgasm of glee even if for most outsiders, its a shrugworthy piece of news. Shows sometimes the small stuff can have as much impact as the big.

As for those that may not know, Peter Cullen is the voice that you hear anytime you think Optimus Prime. He voiced the character throughout the 80's in the series and the cartoon movie.

Additional little tidbits came up in a live interview on G4 for their "Transformers Exclusive" (not sure which was first, them or the panel) where Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura made it official. During the interview, he indicated that the announcement of who the voice of Megatron is will occur during post-production. Does that mean he is already cast? Hmm.

Also, Lorenzo shared his belief of how the live action has an advantage over the animated cartoons, "We are going to be able to do things the animated series could never do. The Transformers can have more moving parts, because they can move better, therefore they can fight better, they can do more things and they can blow up more things."

Give credit to show hosts Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira for attempting to dig more dirt out of him. They tried to get him to confirm internet rumors ("some are true") and reveal alt modes and did more or less confirm that the Optimus Prime pick is true ("...he is a big semi").

So there you go. Nice reveal but man those TF producers are doing an awesome job of keeping the information tight. Darn it.

Peter Cullen Audition Confirmed - Rejected!

Don Murphy has posted once again on his boards about Peter Cullen. In it he denies the Peter Cullen audition:

I never confirmed ANYTHING of the kind. Nada.
Someone else posted it.
I made fun of them.
DO NOT PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH.

Seems like a reasonable mistake to make considering on he previously said "absolutely true, when I feel you can handle the truth I will tell you." Upon review of the thread as a whole, its jokey tone indicates its was a misreading on my part so for that I apologize. So consider the Peter Cullen audition as a fun but unsubstantiated rumor.

Hopefully Don Murphy will be so kind as inform the fans when (or if) the audition it does occur if for no other reason it will give us something to b%$^# about if Peter later doesn't get the role.

Peter Cullen Audition Confirmed

Don Murphy has confirmed over on his boards that Peter Cullen, the original voice for Optimus Prime, has auditioned for the role in the live action movie.

Now this only means that the producers, director, etc are open to the idea of the original voices, not guaranteeing their use. There are political and financial pressures that have to be taken in consideration. Realistically, if some A-list actor shows interest and voice is good enough, they would be fools to pass that up.

In animation, usually the voice actors are done first and the animation (or CGI) are done after to make sure that the mouth movements match. Since your looking at giant robots, therefore giant faces and mouths, its probably in their best interest to have the cast nailed by the time they finalize those portions of the CGI. My thinking is they are hoping the teaser trailer might get the attention of bigger fish.

More information about Peter Cullen's long career is here and here.

UPDATE: Consider this "confirmation" to be no longer confirmed as posted here.