[This story contains spoilers for Transformers: One.]
Eric Pearson has been Marvel Studios’ go-to writer for the past decade, creating films such as Thor: Ragnarok and black widow – and write about upcoming features such as Thunder* and Fantastic Four: The First Step. Along the way, he also branched out into other franchises, such as Godzilla vs. Kongrecently, he and Transformers: 1.
The animated film follows two best friends, Orion Parks (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), as they become sworn enemies – Optimus Prime and Megatron .
Pierson spent several weeks in a conference room at Paramount Pictures, close to director Josh Cooley, working from an early script by fellow scribe Andrew Barrel Gabriel Ferrari. Beyond that, Pearson focuses on crafting an opening that makes the exposition-laden scenes flow smoothly, and takes pride in pushing the envelope of the PG rating.
One memorable scene introduces B (Keegan-Michael Key), a robot who has been working in isolation with only a few “friends” for company. (They are literally heaps of inanimate garbage). Pearson named one of the friends Steve because in a world filled with crazy robot names, the idea of a normal human name pleased the author. The other was named EP-508 – Pearson’s initials plus the area code for the Massachusetts state where he grew up.
But little did Pierson know that Foundation would supplement those references with improvisation. During the taping, Key reviewed a popular sketch from the Comedy Central show key and peelein which he plays a substitute teacher who can’t pronounce his students’ names. One of the students, Aaron, is called “A-aron” by Key’s character, Mr. Garvey. More than a decade after A-aron’s breakthrough, Key named one of B’s robot friends A-atron.
“A-atron is 100 percent who he is,” Pearson said. “He snuck the A-atron in, and I thought, ‘Well, this is better than my Easter eggs and my jokes.'” He succeeded. This is a perfect one.
Pearson is currently in Los Angeles working on scripts for Marvel movies bladebut took a break to delve into his Transformers: 1 process, and shares his thoughts on being one of the few Marvel writers to release two movies in one year (with one coming next summer) Thunder* and Fantastic Four: The First Step.
When did you join Transformers: 1which parts are already in place?
It was already mid to late game. They had a script that contained an outline of the story, which is still the structural skeleton of the story. But what I find interesting about animation is that some things are long-term in the process. The train escape to the ground level is quite far away so it’s a bit locked. Maybe you could change a line here or there. Also, the opening, the entire first 10 minutes, was storyboarded and sketched, changed a lot.
Josh Cooley said that in some versions of the movie, the audience all agrees that D-16 is there for the entire movie, but you all have to exit. You can’t end the film completely agreeing with him. Is this one of the challenges you face?
That’s probably my fault. I loved the D-16 from the beginning. Orion had a heroic arc, but D-16, I just understood where he was coming from. Part of what I did was understand the world so it seemed like more than just a slave colony under Sentinel dominance. My first goal was to flesh out and understand what kind of carrot he was dangling in front of these guys to make them work. D-16 is a rule follower. I can feel this. I love the idea of having rules and we all follow them, there’s nothing like me playing a game all the time, following the rules, and then I realize someone else has been cheating or the rules are unfair.
You definitely have feelings for him.
I really admire Josh’s dark style with him. I remember writing something like, “No, I want to kill him.” And that’s when you started to see the red seep into his orange eyes. Kind of chilling. I love them going there. Those moments don’t feel like a PG kids movie. I remember when I was a kid I would see something and they would be PG – they would say something or do something that I wasn’t supposed to see and it made me look worse.
When you wrote this, were your friends Scarlett Johansson and Chris Hemsworth already on board, or were they added later?
Scully then comes on and I think they were courting him. I never actually talked to Scarlett about it directly, but I gave her the draft. Hemsworth and I had one or two discussions about the character. It’s a tricky balance, making sure he’s cool but also making sure he doesn’t just have blind faith, that he has a belief based on something. I was surprised when he heard Optimus Prime’s voice.
Yes, this sounds like old-school Transformers.
I think the final result they gave him was that he scored 75%. There was another version I first heard, and I thought it was (the original Optimus Prime) Peter Cullen. I was like, “Oh, you’re giving me a test here.” I was like, “Now play Chris’ version.” And they’d be like, “No, that’s his.”
As an Aaron, I appreciate A-atron’s jokes. Did Keegan throw it in?
A-atron is 100% him. My biggest joke in the whole sequence is Steve, I just love Steve. I like the idea that robots’ alien names are the most normal names we have. Another name they said was EP 5-0-8, which is the abbreviation for my home phone area code. But then he snuck the A-atron in, and I was like, “Okay, this is better than my Easter eggs and my jokes.” And he succeeded. This is a perfect one.
How did you approach the exhibition in the first place? There’s a lot of core Transformers vocabulary.
There are a lot of big words you have to teach an unfamiliar audience. Cybertron, energy, leadership matrix. I remember one time I said, “Can I change the name of some of these things?” They said, “Absolutely not.” (laughed.) We have to tell people what they need, but not tell them so much that they get bored and disinterested. It takes a lot of work to achieve this balance.
Does Hasbro give you binders with back material like Marvel does?
No, because they had a script that outlined the story they wanted to tell. I know Optimus Prime and Megatron, and I know Bumblebee, or B. Things like that.
I imagine many people have experienced Sentinel Prime—perhaps a teacher, a boss, or a friend of a friend. A charismatic person who is not as friendly as he seems.
The first thing I did was ditch Sentinel Prime. I just felt like he was so obviously evil in previous versions that I was like, “No, he’s a carnival barker.” He must be a big salesman. He’s a babbler, that’s honestly what he is. And then Jon Hamm interpreted everything exactly as I imagined.
Next summer, you’ll be the only Marvel Studios writer to shoot two movies in one year, Thunder* and Fantastic Four: The First Step. Revisiting Yelena and Alexi was like reuniting with old friends Thunder* back black widow?
It’s a team movie, but for me, I needed a way in, and that way in was Yelena. You could say Tony and/or Steve are the solution Avengers 1. Everyone has their own whole story, their moments, and I think they all have really cool arcs and relationships, but having Yelena be the way in [was important]. In my opinion, she’s just there with Alexi, who is the perfect foil for well-intentioned support that’s often clumsy and goofy but just right when you need it. So it’s an interesting dynamic to be able to embrace these voices again and write for these voices. … Yelena’s mentality, and where she is in life, is the emotional driver of the film.
Are you a first author? Fantastic Four Or have you gone home?
No, they’re in London now. I’m still in LA and from everything I hear, things are going great. Kevin (Fitch) emailed me a photo of the prop I invented. This makes me very happy. I couldn’t tell you what it is, but it’s just as stupid as you might imagine.
