Washington DC: Paramount Pictures and Hasbro are moving closer to bringing the 'Transformers' franchise back to the big screen, with Steven Spielberg returning to focus on the creative aspects of the next live-action film alongside longtime producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Deadline reported.
Filmmaker Michael Bay is also in early talks to return as director.
Spielberg played a similar creative role in the first two 'Transformers' films, which launched the franchise, helped it generate more than $5.4 billion in global box office revenue, and turned Hasbro’s toy brand into a worldwide phenomenon. Spielberg and di Bonaventura will guide the new chapter, aiming to honour the spirit of the early films, while Mark Vahradian, Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, and Hasbro will also produce, according to Deadline.
The film is being developed from a script by Jason Fuchs, with plot details under wraps apart from the fact that it will be set in the modern day, and no cast has been announced as the project remains in early development. Since the first film opened in summer 2007, 'Transformers' has become one of Paramount’s biggest properties, with Spielberg, Bay and di Bonaventura playing major roles in the first film’s success, including Spielberg identifying Bay as his choice to direct it. Bay and di Bonaventura remained the primary architects of the franchise for the next four instalments, while Spielberg took a less hands-on role as an executive producer.
Bay stepped away from the franchise after the 2017 film 'Transformers: The Last Knight'. The subsequent instalments, 'Bumblebee' and 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts', did not match the standards set by earlier films, although they were not complete misses.
According to Deadline, Bay was approached about directing the next film and had remained open to returning over the years; after reading the script and meeting Spielberg earlier this week, he agreed to come on board.