Word comes today that Paramount Pictures is hoping to emulate Lucasfilm’s plans for “Star Wars” with the development of spin-off films to their hit “Transformers” franchise. I Am Legend writer Akiva Goldsman will work with Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura to create a “writer’s room,” the goal of which will be to develop ideas for a “multi-part Transformers sequel” and “potential spin-off films.”
But now that hope has been dashed on the rocks of reality. Deadline reports that the studio is negotiating with Batman & Robin writer Akiva Goldsman to work with Bay and executive producers Steven Spielberg and Lorenzo di Bonaventura to form a Transformers brain trust of writers who will create a new cinematic universe with sequels and spinoffs, similar to what Disney is doing with Marvel and Star Wars. Goldsman is technically not expected to be writing any of these upcoming movies, but it seems as if he’ll be coming up with the story ideas and other writers will be putting them down on the page. Great. That’s just perfect.
Bay has his Benghazi film 13 Hours up next, but he’s expected to return to direct Transformers 5 after he wraps production on that. If all goes according to plan, the next Transformers movie, similar to Paramount’s upcoming Terminator Genisys, will set up a multi-film arc. And with the staggering sums of money the studio must be paying him to come back to direct these films (plus the “one for them, one for me mentality” that was the reason behind Pain & Gain, Bay’s only good movie of the past decade), we can expect that he’ll keep coming back for more, ensuring less coherent storytelling and more explosions moving forward.
When asked about coming back for more, Mark Wahlberg, who starred in the most recent entry Transformers: Age of Extinction, previously said: “Yeah, I committed to doing a couple more. I can’t speak for Mr. Bay, but something tells me we’ll be on set soon.”
“Age of Extinction” went on to gross over $1 billion at the global box office with all four films combined grossing over $3.7 billion.