So I actually kind of like Transformers 3*, and definitely feel like Michael Bay is a visual artist that I would rather have working than not. The thing is though… it took two films worth of bullshit for him to make a film unchained enough for me to appreciate, and at this point I’d really find it more fascinating for him to point his lens elsewhere. Fortunately he’ll be doing that with the decidedly more trim Pain and Gain with Marky Mark and The Rock next, but unfortunately it looks like the Hasbro paycheck is going to be big enough to drag him back to the robot franchise right after.

This news comes from Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, producer toy moves like ‘formers and G.I. Joe 2, who spoke at a Hasbro event and sort of shiftily teased Michael Bay’s involvement. It’s the sort of statement that seems like half-assed attempt at being vague, but is much more concrete than a lot of shit that gets run with as rock solid evidence online these days…

“We’ll be there in the summer of 2014… 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.”

Of course nothing in that statement precludes Bay from sticking with his “the trilogy is it for me” tack and simply staying on as an exec producer like Spielberg, but ultimately it does seem like a grouping of words that suggests Bay will be behind the camera.

He also says there approach will be like G.I. Joe 2 in that they’ll take whoever will come back and craft them into a continuing new story that can bring in new leads and ignore old ones. I guess that’s what happens when you have old school producers wringing IPs dry without having wrapped their minds around the “just fuckin’ reboot the thing!” mindset all the kids are on about these days. I’d almost prefer a reboot at this point.

So the franchise you love to hate will soldier on, and you’ll have your go-to sight-unseen example of “big dumb movie” to drop in conversations in 2014. “Look, it’s not Schindler’s List but it’s not like it’s Transformers 4 or something.” Ah, I can hear it now.

Also, Bonaventura says some stuff about Red 2 and a follow-up to Salt, which I couldn’t give less of a shit about if I tried. If you want to hear him say that the former is shooting in the fall and the other will happen when it happens, follow the link above.

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*Were it not (40 minutes) too indefensibly long, I’d have gone to bat for it much harder.

Source | Coming Soon (via FilmDrunk)