(Image courtesy of Skydance)
Last June, veteran entertainment journalist Matthew Belloni first reported at Puck that Michael Bay, the action filmmaker behind five Transformers movies, had quietly pitched Paramount Skydance his idea for another installment. Now, the news has finally been confirmed.
On its first day following the completion of Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the newly combined company unveiled its first major initiative: bringing Bay back to direct the next live-action Transformers movie. Steven Spielberg, the franchise's longtime executive producer, will also return.
(Image courtesy of Skydance)
According to an exclusive report from Deadline, Bay officially signed on after reading the latest draft of the screenplay and meeting with Spielberg yesterday. Page Six added that Bay and Skydance are finalizing the details of his deal, including whether the studio will agree to his demand for final cut.
The current screenplay comes from Jason Fuchs, co-writer of the first Wonder Woman movie and co-showrunner of the It prequel series "It: Welcome to Derry." The story is set in the present day, rather than the 1990s setting of the previous installment, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," suggesting it may have few direct ties to that film.
(Image courtesy of Pinterest)
The Transformers franchise has suffered a steady box office decline in recent years. After a peak when individual installments could easily top $1 billion worldwide, "Rise of the Beasts" scraped together just $440 million, while the animated "Transformers One" earned only $129 million. Bay's return could be Skydance's attempt to turn the franchise around. Even so, his fifth and final Transformers movie saw the series fall to just over $600 million worldwide. Whether Bay can bring audiences back remains to be seen.