Inde Navarrette "Meets" Childhood Hero

No new movie news to currently report. In the meantime in a movie adjacent way, currently red hot celeb Inde Navarrette got to meet her childhood crush Optimus Prime at Universal Studios Hollywood on Sunday November 8. The normally brunette actress, now sporting blonde hair (or a wig), may be familiar to many for her role in Obsession, recent Halloween night hosting Saturday Night Live or from Superman & Lois CW series (highly recommend watching). The pics are by Hamilton Pytluk via Universal Studios Hollywood.

During Complex's "hear me out cake" segment (or full interview), she revealed that she had a childhood crush on Optimus Prime, Shrek, Baymax (Big Hero 6) and Mufasa. Given her age, it is safe to assume she was referring to the Michael Bay version of the character.

On a related note, if happen to be clear across the country to Universal Orlando, they have renamed their parking decks floors to various movies with Transformers being the fifth level. Should make finding your car a little easier if get a chance to visit. Pic via @magiccitymayhem.

Hopefully as the merged Skydance gets up to speed will start to hear more about future Transformers plans. Considering how in demand Navarrette is right now (just signed on as Rogue in Marvel's X-Men), maybe Bay will make an attempt to cast her.

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.