This past summer, Paramount Studios hired 12 writers to write out the bible for the Transformers cinematic universe. The plan was for the writers to come up with ideas that would expand beyond the canon films with spinoffs and prequels. Of the proposed works there were plans for a Bumblebee spinoff, Beast Wars, and more.
Of the nine pitches that were sent to the Transformers brain trust — Michael Bay, Akiva Goldsman, Steven Spielberg, Mark Vahradian, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura, as well as Hasbro’s Brian Goldner — only five were approved. Of those five, a Transformers Cybertron animated origins film will be helmed by Ant-Man co-writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, while Goldsman is confirmed to be scripting Transformers 5. Bay has yet to announce if he will return to direct the fifth untitled Transformers film. It’s still not clear if the other three unnamed projects are spinoffs or prequels, but Hasbro announced that there will be four more Transformers films in the next decade. More on the story below.
Hasbro’s Steven J. Davis announced during a Q&A that Transformers 5, 6, 7, and 8 are in the works, via EW.
“You’re going to see a new Transformers movie coming from Hasbro and Paramount and Michael Bay and our other partners,” he said. “In fact, we just finished, as some of you may have read, just an incredible experience. We decided that we wanted to plot out the next 10 years of the Transformers franchise, so we got together in a room over a three-month period of time.”
Now we can’t be sure if Bay is actually coming back. Just a couple of weeks back, Bay was contemplating whether or not to return to helm Transformers 5. But Davis seems to tell us that Bay will be back in some sort of capacity, be it directing or producing.
Davis added,
“Nine of some of the most creative writers I have ever worked with, shepherded by Akiva Goldsman, who many of you may know won an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind and [has] written a bunch of great movies. And they plotted out the next 10 years of Transformers. Similarly, we are doing the same in television and in digital. So stay tuned, Transformers 5 is on its way, and 6 and 7 and 8.”
Just in case you forgot, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Pacific Rim 2 writer Zak Penn, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Lost“˜s Jeff Pinkner, Ant-Man co-writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, Lindsey Beer (The Fugitive remake), Christina Hodson (the re-imagining of Wizard of Oz), former Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight, Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down), and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Black List script Hibernation) are all members of the Transformers shared universe writing team.
Now Davis said that he worked with nine writers this past summer, and the original team was comprised of 12 writers. So maybe he misspoke or maybe it didn’t work out for three of them.
As for spinoffs, well other than the animated Cybertron spinoff, word is that a spinoff centering on fan-favorite Bumblebee is in the works, while another one may be based on Beast Wars. Don’t expect to see Transformers crossover with G.I. Joe any time soon as producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura has confirmed that it will not happen.
It’s not clear what the untitled Transformers 5 will be about, but Mark Walhberg is expected to return to star. The film is scheduled for a summer 2017 release.
[Source: EW]
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