Funnily enough the only two things that were consistent in just about every single script written and rewritten were the Optimus Prime dying and the four bots on the shuttle crew dying gruesomely.
Each re-write and story board adjustment had the shuttle deaths become slightly less heinous... except Prowl's which stayed relatively the same through each variation. The only change was that the original story board had the POV follow the shot through his chest and out the other side and then him ending in a slumped sitting position facing the camera. It was always Scavenger who took the shot.
Friedman's initial script was a trainwreck of ideas, that almost feels like three different movies smushed together with little thought to cohesive story telling. Depending you who believe, this was either what Hasbro asked for or Friedman just trying to do too much. In the end, some of his original ideas that never made it into the final script have become accepted Transformers lore after the fact (Sparks, Unicron's origin). Some of the ideas that may never been seen sounded awesome (The original triple changer was a massive Autobot train that converted between a traditional multi-car freight train, an advanced cybertronian multi-car hover train and a giant snake).
Oof, that sucks. Really glad my wife and I got to see her talk back in April at the Arts Commons. Must have happened quick as she was alarmingly with it for her age.
20 years ago, fresh out of design school, I landed a job as “Assistant Art Director” at a new science magazine - only to realize on my first day that there was no actual Art Director. It was just me…I was the entire art department. And the first issue was due in 5 days, and nothing was designed out (typically laying out an issue takes weeks/months).
By the time the cover story (on Intelligent Design) crossed my desk, there was one afternoon to concept, design, and ship. Running on fumes, I grabbed a stock photo of a chimp (seemed like a decent visual for the subject), slapped on some type, and sent it off.
A month later, we got a letter from Jane Goodall. At first, I thought, “Damn, she noticed us!”. But instead of praise, it was a polite but pointed lecture: studio chimp photos are forced and highly stressful for the animals…and a science magazine should know better. Don’t do it again.
Two decades later, every time I see a chimp photo, I chuckle about being scolded by Jane Goodall.
I had 3 hours, lady! But yeah...I get it.
The cover in question:
Spoiler!
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