As you can imagine, Paramount and Hasbro want to make more Transformers movies. We guess making tons of money is “hip” now or something. As we reported yesterday, talks are underway with Spielberg and Michael Bay about the next films in the franchise. Now, a day later, we hear more news from the Paramount camp about what they have in store for the Transformers franchise. Apparently they want more Transformers. And they want Jason Statham to replace Shia LaBeouf.
We are completely fine with that.
Variety reports that, in an effort to reduce the astronomical costs of producing a movie like Transformers, Paramount is considering producing Transformers 4 and 5 back-to-back. Makes sense. And since Shia LaBeouf has publicly stated he doesn’t want to return for another Transformers, they’re looking for another star to replace him. Jason Statham is reportedly the whisper heard most often around the studio, but no offer has been officially been made. Hmm… We wonder if Jason Statham likes money too?
Yeah, he’s in that movie.
Michael Bay isn’t a sure thing to return either, as a director at least, since he’s dedicated to doing Pain & Gain next. (Although that’s a small enough production that he could conceivably finish it in time to do Transformers 4 & 5 as well… if he really wants to.) Transformers: Dark of the Moon screenwriter Ehren Krueger reportedly already has a story idea for the sequels, but the production hasn’t even reached that stage yet. We’ll bet it has something to do with cars punching each other though.
CraveOnline will be back with more Transformers news after we sing an epic ballad for the loss of our beloved Starscream.