Filmmaker Michael Bay left the Transformers franchise to work on other projects after directing five of the series’ films, from the 2007 original to 2017’s “Transformers: The Last Knight.”
Neither he nor the “Transformers” franchise have achieved the box office success of those movies in the near ten years that have passed. Bay continued with “6 Underground,” which immediately went to Netflix, but “Ambulance,” although receiving positive reviews, failed.
The well-received “Transformers” movie “Bumblebee” was released in the meantime, but it only made $468 million, far less than Bay’s worst-performing “Transformers” movie ($605 million). The animated “Transformers One” was a complete failure, and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” did even worse.
According to Puck News, Bay is now working on a new “Transformers” film at Paramount Pictures, which he plans to direct:
“Bay approached the studio last year to come back as a hands-on producer and possibly director, and he’s got writer Jordan VanDina (“Animaniacs,” “Dodgeball 2″) working on a script. It’s one of five or so Transformers projects in development that David Ellison and Skydance will inherit if/when the Paramount sale closes.”
The report adds that “Transformers One” helmer Josh Cooley has closed a deal to pursue a new live-action film, while a “possible G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover in development, and the studio has two separate ideas in early stages.”
It’s unclear, though, if the planned crossover will still go forward now that Bay is back in the running. Although there is no news on when any of these projects will take place, the studio has a number of years before a movie must be released in order to keep the rights.