Transformers 4 Confirmed Summer of 2014

Oops! What was supposed to be a major announcement from Parmount Pictures — that Michael Bay will return to direct a fourth installment in the studio's popularTransformers franchise — was spoiled yesterday when producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura unceremoniously disclosed the information to MTV during a video interview at Toy Fair 2012. According to Deadline, "Paramount is furious at di Bonaventura" for not only spilling the beans about Bay's involvement, but also revealing that Transformers 4 (working title) will be a "reboot...hybrid" that keeps the "continuity" of the first three movies, but with "a whole new story" and "a lot of new cast."

[Michael's] excited and, you know, I think the challenge there is, we really are going to do a reboot there. And what that's going to be, we don't even know yet. ...It's a hybrid because, you know, it's a funny thing. It's not the way — I'm not involved with [The Amazing] Spider-Man, but what I perceive Spider-Man to be is just a re-doing of the whole thing. [Transformers 4 is] not. It's an evolution. There's still continuity that's going on, and yet there will be a lot of new cast. Whether there's anybody from the first cast, we don't even know yet. The trust is it's going to be a whole new story. The characters that certainly will come along are Optimus and Bumblebee, I'm sure.

One hour after MTV posted the di Bonaventura video, Paramount Pictures released a statement announcing that Bay had signed a "two-picture deal with the studio," which commences this spring with the filming of the low budgeted true crime thriller Pain and Gain starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and concludes with Transformers 4. Beyond announcing a June 29th, 2014, release date, Paramount's press release offered no further details about Transformers 4, though it definitely put to rest the rumors that the next two Transformers movies would be shot back-to-back.

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