Skydance Taps Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg for New Transformers Movie

While not officially confirmed by Paramount, Deadline is reporting that the studio has reached out to Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay to return to the franchice. Both had contractually obligated executive producer credit on Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts but were not really involved in a meaningful way on either picture. 

It seems this time the goal is to restore that first few films magic with more input from both with Bay directing once again. Currently the film will be based on a script by Jason Fuchs (Wonder, Woman, Argylle, It: Welcome to Derry). The 8th installment will retain the same producing team of Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto and Hasbro. No other details were provided so unknown if this is a reboot or a continuation of the previous films. 

The move is a bit of surprise but the now completed merger of WB and Paramount has changed the needs of the company. The merged company has a value of around $81 billion with a debt load of $80 billion so every single decision for years will be entirely about how to reduce that load. Debt has monthly interest payments even for mega corporations. The result is they need to take big, but safe, swings and the team of Spielberg and Bay has shown with previous films that worst case scenario they will break even at the box office with best case being at least $1 billion at the box office. 

Assuming this rumor is true, still early times as the combined company has ton of projects to cancel, new ones to greenlight, at least 10,000 employees to layoff and who knows what else so its a time of change for Paramount and Hollywood in general. Even if the script was accepted, looking at least two years from now so realistically the earliest the film could hit theaters is possibly Christmas 2028 but probably Summer 2029 is more realistic.

Transformers: The Movie 40th Anniversary Special Features

Amazon has updated their pre-order page for The Transformers: The Movie : 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook in 4K UHD with verification of new special features. The release will come with two discs. One is regular Blu-ray and the other is 4K UHD Blu-ray. 

Each will have their own special features that are a mix of new content and previous features from 35th Anniversary release. The new stuff is audio in Dolby Atmos, Optimus Prime: Awakening short, new "The Touch" (Reformatted Edition) music video, and the 40th anniversary trailer. 

The previously released special features includes audio commentary with director Nelson Shin, story editor Flint Dille, and voice actress Susan Blu (Arcee), 'Til All Are One' documentary, Stan Bush interview, feature-length animated storyboards, deleted scenes, trailers and tv spots. No indication that the "Till All Are One" tribute to Peter Cullen will be included.

The Limited Edition Steelbook is available now on Amazon to pre-order.

Transformers and G.I. Joe Crossover Cancelled

The planned crossover with G.I. Joe has been cancelled. A G.I. Joe film is moving forward but it "will be uncoupled from a previous crossover film with Transformers that is no longer in development. The planned G.I. Joe film has cast Bradley Cooper (voice of Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, Jor-El in Superman) as Duke with Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones) directing for the first time from a script by Jeff Fradley (Halloween) and John Carcieri (The Righeous Gemstones). No details on the story or when it could move forward to production were revealed. 

The decision is likely driven by Transformers: Rise of the Beasts under performing at the box office by Paramount's standard which played a part in Hasbro deciding to quit co-producing movies on its properties and shift to a licensing model.