How much did you guys end up spending in post and what was that process like?

It’s amazing actually in this one because we got the experience that you usually only get in animated movies we think since the robots aren’t animated until the last minute we were able to re-write their dialogue. Normally a writer doesn’t get the luxury of re-writing your stars in editing.

You just drop it in in post.

Yeah. So it was amazing for that reason.  We were in the editing room and able to make stuff better and being able to write sequences more specifically.

Where did you guys do most of that?

At Platinum Dunes, the editing room. 

I’m sorry for going back to this but your favorite Star Trek show and Alex’s?

I’m actually a Next Generation fan myself and I think he’s more classic. 

What’s your feeling and I’m sorry again that that’s a thing for a lot of us that want to know but what’s your feeling about all the fans going on about Kirk and Spock and just everyone not being able to accept that it’s going to be a re-boot and you know is there any frustration on your end?

No. I understand it just like I understand how everyone thinks Transformers is going to be a toy commercial and it’s not until they see it.  Know that it’s factored into our thinking that people are afraid of what ever it’s going to be and whatever the criticisms are we’re not confirming or denying anything, we’re aware of them and they’re a part of the fabric of the story is all I can say.

Let me bring up the thing that I’m sure they’re going to hate me constantly bringing up but this was my experience this week.  Transformers mean nothing to me.  Fantastic Four that’s what I grew up on, ok?  What was really interesting to me experiencing this movie was that everything I hated about the silver surfer movie I loved about this one. It seemed to have just the right balance of taking this idea of cars that turn into space robots which I find intrinsically ridiculous but you know it had so much fun with it you know and was almost satirizing the ridiculousness of it and then it got into the really cool looking shit and it was exactly the complaint and everything that I hated about the silver surfer movie and was too light-hearted about it you know and it’s a much worse movie on every level of course.  What I’m asking you is you talked about tone a little bit earlier, what about the humor and what about acknowledging within the film that boy this is really ridiculous but we’ve got to acknowledge it but we’ve also got to get past that and you know…

So kind of 2 questions on that from the point of view of Shia’s character and boy and his car. We want to end up taking it more seriously; his reaction and the kid’s are very much like the wonder of like Marty McFly was a great model for us.  There was genuine humor in that but he was absolutely genuine in his reactions.  The government side was something that could have seen sort of infinitely more self-important and whatever tonally in balance for lack of a better word so that’s where we play in a little bit more in terms of the soldiers take it very seriously but then you take a character like John Tuturo where sort of a riff on the men in black and a riff on the secret government and the one big conceit, the one big buy you get in this is the giant robots and pretty much past that you’re not going to get a whole lot more of a suspension so that’s where we used a little bit of the room to have fun with it and engage in that way.  But that was the ballgame and the parents. I love them, they’re great.

What was the inspiration for the parents?  Either of yours or Alex’s?

Ron and Judy are my in-laws.

Are they really?

That’s their names, Ron and Judy. We named them after my in-laws.

Were you doing that kind of element also to bring the parents to bring their kids into it and to give them something a little bit?  Did you want to kind of provide something for every demographic with this?  It seems really raw like you have the really hard-core action and you have the comedy and you have the jokey family stuff—you have all those elements.

Maybe subliminally.  I’m sure the studio would want that but if you’re a 17 year old who’s going to go get a car you have parents.  It would be an omission not to have them. It wasn’t like we need to have parents.

It was a full chunk of the movie in the house, it was really a part of it.

I think that was also Michael Bay’s favorite part.  That’s why he locked in on it. This is going to be my first kid’s movie.  This is his kid’s movie.

I’m going back to Trek. As lifelong fans, what was it like to get the keys to the kingdom?

Insane.  It’s like getting a Lamborghini.  It’s crazy.  It was insane.  Terrifying but safety in numbers too.  We’re doing it with J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof both the creators of Lost.  We knew that if the 4 or 5 of us couldn’t do it then that was it.

How involved is Damon in the process?

He was very involved.  We read the story with him very early on.  He’s a gigantic fan as well.  In fact he said that the inspiration for Lost was Trek. 

Can I ask you about the tone for Star Trek that you’re creating?  Is it more…are you looking to keep it on the same tone as the previous ones or are you looking to take it to the more darker, raw aspect like Batman Begins?

I don’t know about darker but definitely to update the tone.

Going back to Transformers, you said you were quoted somewhere that you’re not writing the sequel; someone else will be doing that.  Any reason why you guys chose not to go back to write the 2^nd film? 

You know as a screen writer, we’re going to be lucky to live through this one.  We knew going in that there was going to be like oh, it’s a toy commercial. Oh, the action is all that’s going to sell it, the story’s not part of it, the dialogue is irrelevant, the screen writers are irrelevant and that’s if it’s a good movie.  That’s if people like it.  Forget about if they hate it, so we were lucky to live through it. We did our duty for God and country.  If we really knew what the next one should be that would be a different thing but we don’t want to do it just because we’re like hey we did the 1^st one and we should do the 2^nd one.  If we come up with something great, great but we want to have a reason to do it, not to say it’s a business, a franchise we’re going to go do the 2^nd one because that’s what we do and you’re going to get the big money.  And Star Trek by the way is taking up all our time.

When you guys came up with using the Secretary of Defense, were you guys thinking of Donald Rumsfeld?  Was it like part of the thought?

You can’t escape it. 

Nice jab at Bush by the way. Was that in the script?

Yeah. 

The Spanish dialogue, I’m assuming you’re the one who put it in because it was hilarious.  Was that all you because you’re….

Alex speaks Spanish too.  He lived in Mexico City for a year.

Did you guys do much writing once the big action starts in the movie or in a sequence?  Did you guys write it out much or just chase down the freeway?

It’s very detailed.  I’m sure the script will get out someday. Check it out.

A lot of the moves and a lot of the action were first written in the script?

Yeah, absolutely.  Michael takes it to another level but you know you can’t just write a big friggin’ chase here you got to kind of block it out.

Are you guys going to be day to day involved in Trek or are you also working on another project?

We’re working on multiple things but we’re going to be day to day on Trek.  We’re also executive producing it.

I have to ask…you mentioned about the script, did the experience of Transformers with early script reviews getting up there, has that effected the way you guys are guarding the Star Trek script? 

You bet your ass.  Especially because Star Trek is much more dependant on the story being fresh.  Transformers we knew that even if it leaked, you were not going to be able to match in Transformers until you saw it, the spectacle does buy us a little bit of leeway in terms of if you know what is going to happen, Trek does not have that give me.  Trek’s been around people have seen it so it’s infinitely more important that the story we new when you get to it because it does matter.

So how do you guard it nowadays with the internet and all the leaks?

We have encryption programs. We have a trusted made-man fly it every where.  He’s like the mob boss in Casino with the handcuffs.

Is it becoming an issue these days with just the avid technology to give away more of the show.  Do you give away parts of the movie out just to satisfy people so they’re not digging and getting things?

No, try not to however the odd experience of having stuff leak on Transformers made us engage the internet fans because we had to and that was a good experience.