After the showing of “Transformers: Age of Extinction” last year, Director Michael Bay decided to vacate the director’s chair for the next sequel of the franchise. In his stead came Jonathan Liebesman, his protégé, whose latest film credit was the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reboot movie also shown last year.
While there have been subsequent reports that Michael Bay is back in the “Transformers” franchise, it became clear later on that the director will indeed be back but not to helm the next sequel or sequels of the movie.
Apparently, Paramount Pictures has taken back Michael Bay to develop and lead a ‘writer’s room’ who shall be tasked to create multi-part “Transformers” sequels and potential spin-off movies too, notes Comingsoon.net.
Leading the ‘writer’s room’
Michael Bay will be joined by “I Am Legend” writer Akiva Goldsman in leading the ‘writer’s room’ that shall also have Steven Spielberg and Lorenzo di Bonaventura as the other members of the development team.
Goldsman will not be writing scripts and screenplays but shall provide oversight into the development of stories once writers are hired and started churning their creative outputs.
Reports have it that Michael Bay is hoping to shoot the next film very soon after he completed his work on his Benghazi drama titled “13 Hours.”
There have been reports that the fifth installment of the “Transformers” franchise will be released in 2016 but it has been confirmed to have been pushed back to 2017.
Expanding the mythology
Brian Goldner, President and CEO of Hasbro, the production company of the “Transformers” franchise, confirmed the studio’s plan regarding the ‘writer’s room.’
He said that the “Transformers” brand has been around for 30 years, dating back to the time when it was still an animated TV series, so he is positive that the writers as overseen by Akiva Goldsman can expand the mythology and come up with really good stories.
Goldner is optimistic that the Goldsman-led writing team can really create a strategic plan about “Transformers.”
All four movies of the “Transformers” franchise have brought in a combined gross of over $3.7 billion in the global box office, making it one of the most successful film franchises in history, and largely contributing to the coffers of Hasbro.
The fourth and latest film “Transformers: Age of Extinction” shown last year made over $1 billion in worldwide box office haul and Hasbro expects that the upcoming sequels will be well within the range of the earnings of the past “Transformers” film, if not better.
So far, only actor Mark Wahlberg is confirmed to return to “Transformers 5.” In a recent interview, Wahlberg said that he has committed to do a couple of films for the franchise. He added that he cannot speak for Michael Bay, when he was also asked if the director is coming back with him for “Transformers 5.”