Following yesterday's news that Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Discovery have officially merged to form Skydance, Page Six reports that Michael Bay has been tapped to direct the next Transformers movie.
According to the site, Bay is in final talks to tackle the project. He's been negotiating for final cut on the film, but Deadline has since unearthed additional details about what the filmmaker's return to the world of Transformers could look like.
The trade explains that Steven Spielberg has been enlisted to "focus on all creative aspects of the next live-action Transformers film," with longtime producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura set to join him. Bay, meanwhile, is in "early talks" to return as director.
Spielberg was creatively involved with the first two Transformers movies, and Skydance has brought him back to take on a similar role for this eighth instalment. Despite that, it appears he had no interest in helming the project, making Bay the studio's natural choice.
Wonder Woman writer Jason Fuchs is penning the screenplay, and no cast or story details have been revealed beyond the fact it's set in the "modern day."
Bay helmed five Transformers movies, which were all huge hits. Critics didn't love them, and fans were mixed, but the "least" successful of his films grossed $605 million, with the most successful grossing $1.1 billion.
Bumblebee, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Transformers One didn't find the same level of commercial success, even with better reviews, so it's not hard to understand why Skydance is turning to Bay to restore the property to its former financial glory. While Shia LaBeouf's return seems doubtful, bringing Megan Fox back into the fold would certainly get plenty of eyes on the movie.
Apparently, "Newly minted Paramount Pictures Co-Chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg made it not only a priority to breathe new life into the franchise but to get Spielberg on board to be more involved in the next film's development." From there, the next step was getting Bay on board.
In 2022, Bay reflected on 2007's Transformers when he said, "The first one was scary. It was technology we didn’t know would work, and then it became very successful. It was the first time digital effects were that highly reflective, so it broke a lot of new ground."
"It was a fun experience," the filmmaker continued. "It made more than [$709 million]; that’s a lot of movie tickets and a lot of people that have seen it."
However, Bay also acknowledged that he would have been wise to walk away when the going was good. "I made too many of them. Steven Spielberg said, 'Just stop at three.' And I said I’d stop. The studio begged me to do a fourth, and then that made a billion too. And then I said I’m gonna stop here. And they begged me again. I should have stopped. They were fun to do.
Stay tuned for updates on Transformers as we have them.