Next up were writing partners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, both of whom are the perfect age to remember playing with the toys as kids, watching the television series, which ran from 1984 to 1987, and seeing the animated 1986 movie, “The Transformers: The Movie” written by Ron Friedman and directed by Nelson Shin.

Orci likens playing with the toys as “the ultimate peek-a-boo” game for eight-year-olds. “What is it, a truck?” he says, “No, it's not a truck.  Oh my God, it talks! It's a robot. It's the ultimate jack-in-the-box with a constant surprise. And from a more sophisticated approach, you'd imagine all your toys coming to life. You imagine befriending all the technology around you. That was a cool concept in 1984, and it still is now.”

Kurtzman agrees. “The idea behind the toy is that everything around us, our cars, and all technology, are sentient,” he explains. “Every thing has emotions and feelings but we don't know it because they are in disguise. This seemed like a good jumping off point for a movie.”

“Alex and Roberto are very skilled at drawing strong characters,” says di Bonventura. “Once they came aboard, the project quickly found its feet.”

“The Transformers may be robots on the outside but they all have very human souls,” says DeSanto. “It's important not to lose that in the translation. As always it comes down to the classic good (the Autobots) versus evil (the Decepticons) with the future of humanity at stake.”

“The writers really helped narrow the choice of robots,” says Bay. “At the beginning I had some very elaborate plans for these newer robots called `Combiners,' but ultimately it became too cost prohibitive to create them just in terms of manpower, let alone the technology to make them look real.”

“Steven wanted to make it an even five against five,” Bay continues, “so that's where it took off.”

The filmmakers spent time watching the 1980s “The Transformers” television show as well as the animated movie until they were very familiar with the first generations of robots.

“It became obvious that we couldn't make a movie without Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron,” says di Bonaventura. “After that we took a poll amongst ourselves, found out who were our favorites and then asked fans who their favorites were. From there we put a list together that encompasses most peoples' favorite Transformers. We know that people are going to feel, `Oh I wish they'd have put in that one or that other one,' but there were only so many robots we could deal with in one movie.”

Shia LaBeouf is Sam Witwicky - (Username: Ladiesman 217)

When Shia LaBeouf first heard that a movie version of the beloved Transformers franchise was on the horizon, he immediately assumed the worst, but he wasn't as worried as many who complained vociferously on Internet websites dedicated to lambasting the filmmakers. He was less concerned about which robots would be showcased and didn't care overmuch about the specific vehicles or their paint jobs; he just hoped the big screen version would not lose the heart of the comic and the toy line, and wondered how in the world a live action movie would be able to make those amazing transformations so feasible in the world of animation.

“My childhood was `Yogi Bear' and the `Transformers' shows,” describes LaBeouf.  “I was eight years old and I would play the tapes over and over again.” 

His favorite Transformer was always Bumblebee, with Decepticon Frenzy running a close second.  When asked about the controversy over changing one or two of the vehicle models and updating some of the design aspects of the robots and their characters, LaBeouf is philosophical.  “You have to keep up with the times, you have to update,” he says. “You can't keep the story in the `80s.  It might work for 25 hardcore fans, but for the rest of the world, you can't portray Megatron as a handgun. Cinematically speaking, you need to amplify the danger.  Megatron is now an alien jet the likes of which you've never seen before.”

There's no American mythology,” he goes on to explain. “There's no folklore, and for some, no religion. A lot of people in my generation didn't even read Catcher in the Rye. But most of them know about Barbie, Lego, Tony Hawk and the Transformers; it's pop culture. The scary thing about jumping in to pop culture is you don't want to sell out. But once I met with Mike, I saw that we weren't going to make a film about some guy in tights and a cape. It was more a movie about the fact that we, as humans, don't know everything; the idea that machines can, in a certain respect, overpower humans.”

During production, LaBeouf became close to veteran actor Jon Voight who gave him a book abut the theater. “In Greek, the word `theater' means `the seeing place,'” LaBeouf explains. “People used to come to the theater to see something they weren't experiencing in life; to see exaggerations on social situations, on mechanical possibilities, on the human condition.  But every exaggeration begins in truth, which is what Michael and I talked about.”

When the two first sat down together, they discussed Sam Witwicky's coming-of age-story and the dilemmas he must face when finding himself at the center of a war of two worlds. “It was never a discussion of technology,” says LaBeouf, “or `Let's talk about the robots.' The first thing we talked about was how to make Sam's story real.  How do we make the characters honest? How do we make the relationships work so that the audience can follow the story? Because if you don't give a crap about the characters, even the animated ones, you're not going to watch the movie.”

“Sam is just a normal kid,” says Bay. I didn't want him to be the stud or the geek, just a normal Joe. He's the type of guy who finds his edge through humor.  He's a little awkward, but you immediately like him.

“And like every guy, he's consumed with getting his first car,” says Bay. “When I was growing up I had to save for my car fund and when I built it up enough my Dad was going to match it, just like Sam. I got a VW Scirocco and I had it painted at this place called Keystone Body Shop in Santa Monica, which coincidentally is the same building, the exact space in fact, where the edit bays in my office now sit.  How bizarre is that? I remember walking in with my $900. Picking up that car was the most important moment, just like picking out the car for Sam.

“At the car dealership he gravitates to the Camaro,” he continues, “because it's got the slick wheels and a racing stripe and it looks semi cool, but we do give a wink to the VW when Bernie Mac tries to sell him the bug.  But you know immediately there's a connection between Sam and that Camaro.”

“Sam becomes a messenger for the robots,” LaBeouf says. “He referees the entire situation between the Autobots and the Decepticons. He's the human anchor for the movie so that you can have this outlandish plot of two kids in high school with no special skills, no cape, no big gun, who get the upper hand over evil robots, the government, hackers, everyone.

“Robots aside, Sam is very sheltered,” says LaBeouf, “he hasn't seen much of the world, so he's searching for an adventure. Of course, in his mind adventure comes in the form of a girl named Mikaela, but he finds out soon enough that his adventure is more than finding a girlfriend. When he's first approached by Optimus, it's not something he's ready for, but through the course of the film he becomes a man. Sam starts as a kid with no responsibilities and big dreams, but his focus changes. His friendship with this girl grows from a shallow infatuation to a very intimate relationship and he finds a best friend and a guardian in these robots.”

Di Bonaventura who knew LaBeouf from working with him on “Constantine,” believes the actor's likeability quotient is enormous and allows audiences to root for him which is essential to the story's progression.

“There's no question that having grown up in the movie business Shia has learned how to make a character his own,” he says, “how to interpret the character's choices and how to create the character's inner world. For his age, Shia is beyond sophisticated.”

“Shia's quite a sensation,” Voight agrees.  “He's the real thing.”

Megan Fox is Mikaela Banes

Constantly teased about her last name and the style with which she wears the mantle, Megan Fox is undeniably an all-around good sport.  In her first leading role in a major motion picture, Fox was thrust into the limelight of a big action movie helmed by none other than the wildest action director ever, Michael Bay.

“Given that Michael's name was attached to the script and that it was planned as a summer release, I knew the movie was going to be huge,” she says, “I just had no idea how much of a part I was going to play in relation to the whole thing or what I was in for,” she says with a wink.

Bay, along with his Platinum Dunes producing partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, had originally auditioned Megan Fox for their remake of “The Amityville Horror” (directed by Andrew Douglas).  When she returned to Bay's offices two years later to audition for the role of Mikaela, he saw something beyond her obvious beauty that complemented the character.

“Even though Megan's relatively new to movies, she's incredibly poised and confident, and it's not phony,” says Bay.  “I also liked that no one really knew about her, which can be scary when you think about giving such a big part to someone untested, but the pairing with Shia really worked.  They had a great energy.”

“Michael Bay is kind of infamous,” laughs Fox. “But the more you are around him, the more obvious it becomes that he has this off-beat sense of humor.  If he yells, it's more about entertaining himself and ribbing you.  He's not a scary guy, he's funny.”

“Michael's a frat boy,” says her co-star LaBeouf, “and if you're going to have a relationship with Mike, you cannot be the sentimental actor.  You cannot be fearful. You have to hold your own and be tough if you're going to play with that crowd. Michael needs people who can deal with that, who can hang in there and keep going, and Megan figured it out.”

“Michael's a phenomenal director,” she says. “Audiences are coming to this movie to see robots, explosions, and jets and helicopters screaming overhead - they want to see action.  Shia and I were just along for the ride,” she laughs.

As Mikaela, 20-year-old Fox plays the hottest girl in high school who is not engrossed in the usual girlie interests and pursuits.  Instead, she is a thinker who, like Sam, is looking for the next adventure life has to offer.

“She's from the wrong side of the tracks,” Fox explains. “She's had a difficult family life and it's made her tough. But she's a sweet girl and when Sam is ridiculed by her boyfriend she sticks up for him and breaks up with her boyfriend over the incident; it's all very melodramatic.

“Mikaela's also a tomboy,” she continues, “she likes to work with cars, and she gets sucked into the whole robot world by accident.  It's like she's stuck in the middle with Sam and she feels she has to protect him.”

Similar to their characters, Fox and LaBeouf bonded as friends under the pressures of a fast paced, demanding production schedule. “Shia is one of the funniest people I've ever met,” Fox enthuses.  “He's just naturally funny. Sometimes it was hard to get through scenes with him. And he's so good at improv, he just gets funnier and funnier, which made it harder and harder for me to stick to the script and try not to laugh.  Michael loves improv and I'm terrible at it, so I always want to stick to the lines, but I tried to make it work when Shia went off. It was pretty difficult to concentrate because he's just so funny, and it doesn't help when you can see the crew behind the camera laughing.”

Aside from keeping pace with her co-star, the most difficult task for Fox was keeping the film and her character believable. “How can you use `Bumblebee' in a sentence and connect to it?” she asks. “How do you make talking to a 40-foot robot realistic, especially when your character is the human thread that connects the audience to the story?  It was our job to keep that balance, but for me it was the hardest part of the job.”