Given that the last time there was chatter about the continuation of the Transformers franchise with Michael Bay at the helm, the director was quick to shoot down such suggestions, we’re going to take this strictly with a dose of rumour salts for now. But the eager film ferrets over at Vulture are reporting insider talk that the man who never met an object he didn’t want to exploderise is now close to a deal for the fourth instalment of robotic Bayhem.
According to the whispers, Paramount has yet to lock in a final contract with Bay but that talks are now officially ongoing.
Right now, Bay is focusing more on his long-gestation true crime passion project Pain And Gain, which is looking to lock in Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg to star. Apparently that’s part of the negotiations – if Bay gets to finally make Pain, he’ll also sign on to keep Optimus, Bumblebee and the rest rolling along. "Without Pain, there’s no tit for tat," is how one insider has allegedly put it, which seems grimly appropriate since either "tit" or "tat" is how many would describe the TF movies' problems/appeal.
Dark Of The Moon writer Ehren Kruger has been working on a story idea for the fourth (and possibly fifth) entry, though little is known about the plot besides some talk that it’ll dig yet deeper into the mythology of the Transformers, but steer clear of becoming a prequel. While it’s a safe bet that Paramount will keep churning out the movies, we’ll have to wait and see if they can make Bay sit his arse back down in the director’s chair for sure...