We’ve known for quite some time that Michael Bay has been circling a fourth Transformers movie after the box office success of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but now comes word from producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura that not only is Bay set to direct the fourth installment – which is planned to arrive in cinemas in the summer of 2014 – but he’ll actually be rebooting his own franchise.
Yes, you have read that correctly. I guess he’s finally run out of ways to bring Megatron back from the dead.
“[Bay] is a cool customer, he’s excited and I think the challenge there is that we are really are going to do a reboot and what that’s going to be we don’t even know yet,” di Bonaventura told MTV News. “It’s a hybrid. I’m not involved with The Amazing Spider-Man, but what I perceive Spider-Man to be is a redoing of the whole thing. [Transformers isn’t]. It’s an evolution, there’s still continuity that’s going on and yet there will be a lot of new cast and whether there will be anyone from the old cast, we don’t know yet. It’s going to be a whole new story. The characters who will come along will be Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, I’m sure.”
Although it remains unclear at the moment whether the likes of Shia LaBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will be back for the next Transformers adventure, di Bonaventura did take a moment to address the casting rumours surrounding Jason Statham, confirming that there has been no discussions with the British action star: “No, it’s so silly. We’ve got to get a story first.”
So then, a director rebooting his own series… isn’t that taking things just a little too far?
Update – Paramount Pictures have since issued a press release, stating that Bay has signed on to direct the bodybuilding thriller Pain and Gain this spring alongside stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, after which he will “bring audiences a new take” on Transformers, reuniting with producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto and Ian Bryce and executive producers Steven Spielberg, Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian for a release date of June 29th, 2014.
Originally published February 14, 2012. Updated November 29, 2022.
