Even though Michael Bay tried to sound firm in his decision to quit the Transformers franchise after the mega successful Dark Side of the Moon, he left just enough wiggle room that nobody really believed him. Especially after the film earned over $1.2B and became the fourth highest grossing movie of all-time. Paramount simply wasn't going to let him go, and to help woo him into making a fourth film, they dangled Bay's long gestating indie film, Pain and Gain, in front of him like a carrot.
Late last year Bay touched on rumors he was in final negotiations to direct another Transformers movie by saying he was still undecided, with Pain and Gain the only solid film on his schedule and to be filmed in the spring. Today at a Hasbro event to hype G.I. Joe: Retaliation, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura said that Paramount is set on summer 2014 for Transformers 4. As for whether or not Bay would direct, he was much less concrete....
Di Bonaventura: "Michael had a debate because he sort of felt at first that he'd done three. Michael and I are both the same in that we always like to top ourselves. That doesn't necessarily mean bigger. It can be bigger in places, it just means different, but we're going to push really hard as fresh and new as we can be."
He added that the approach may be similar to the one taken by Jon Chu and the G.I. Joe sequel, keeping just a few characters and adding new ones to a loosely connected story. Shia Labeouf has made it clear he won't be back as Spike Witwicky, so the search will be on for a new human counterpart for the Autobots. Previous rumors had mentioned the possibility of Jason Statham coming aboard, but the actor has denied any talks had taken place.
On the Pain and Gain front, filming is set to begin in April just as Bay predicted, with Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson starring in the crime caper about a botched kidnapping spearheaded by a group of bodybuilders.
Di Bonaventura dropped a couple of bits about two other projects on his slate. He confirmed that a sequel to Red would shoot in the fall, and that Robert Schwentke would not return to direct. It's expected that Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and the rest of the surviving cast will reprise their roles.
Also, a script is still being worked out for a sequel to Salt, the Angelina Jolie hit thriller previously directed by Philip Noyce. Production on that one won't begin until Jolie's schedule is clear, with Di Bonaventura saying he wouldn't want to see that film without Jolie aboard. [ComingSoon]
