Transformers Sequels & Spin-Offs

[Mitch Henessey]

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures wants more Transformers. Taking a page from Fox’s incubation of three Avatar sequels and what Disney is doing to revive Star Wars with a sequels and spinoffs, the studio is negotiating with Akiva Goldsman to work with franchise director Michael Bay, exec producer Steven Spielberg and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to organize a “writer’s room” that will incubate ideas for a potential multi-part Transformers sequel, and come up with potential spinoff films based on the billion-dollar franchise culled from the Hasbro toy line.

Though Goldsman is the Oscar winning writer of A Beautiful Mind and many other big pics, I don’t get the impression the deal being negotiated calls for him to write one of these films. His will be an oversight role to secure writers and hatch the movies they’ll script. This is happening very quickly. Bay, who has directed all four Transformers films and most recently helmed Transformers: Age Of Extinction, is readying to next direct the Benghazi siege drama 13 Hours. He’d like to have something hammered out when he completes production so that the next Transformers pic can move forward quickly.

This is a major priority for new Motion Picture Group president Marc Evans, who’s tasked with getting more movies made. It marks an intriguing new step as studios put even more of a premium on the care and feeding of tentpole franchises.

James Cameron has come through a long incubation process with three Avatar sequels he’ll shoot back to back. He co-wrote Avatar 2 with Amanda Silver & Rick Jaffa, Avatar 3 with Josh Friedman, and Avatar 4 with Shane Salerno. All those writers spent seven months with Cameron in a writer’s room breaking down the beats of the trilogy. Cameron will shoot all three back to back at Peter Jackson’s WETA studios in Wellington, New Zealand (Jackson is the godfather of this multi-film-shoot movement, doing it with both The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies). Fox is investing a reported $900 million in those Avatar movies but one extended principal production period saves money, and News Corp hopes will drive the bottom line for years to come.

Disney has been ultra-aggressive since it bought Marvel, which has cranked out superhero films with regularity, and it has done the same since buying Lucasfilm. It created the infrastructure for three main Star Wars films — one with JJ Abrams directing and two with Looper helmer Rian Johnson. It also has spinoffs aplenty starting with Rogue One, the Gareth Edwards-directed film to star Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn.

It’s not hard to see why Paramount covets more Transformers installments. The most recent, Transformers: Age Of Extinction, grossed nearly $1.1 billion, and became the top grossing release ever in China. And despite gross payouts that included Bay and the film’s star Mark Wahlberg, the film still generated $250 million in net profits to Paramount and was named Most Valuable Blockbuster in Deadline’s annual breakdown of top domestic grossing tentpole films.

Goldsman, like Bay and Wahlberg, is repped by WME.

http://deadline.com/2015/03/transformers-akiva-goldsman-paramount-sequels-spinoffs-1201400027/



The news for more Transformers sequels is no real surprise. The vast majority of critics consistently pan the Transformers films (the 2007 original holds the highest Rotten Tomatoes score with a 57%), but like it or not, the series is a proven cash cow.

If we’re talking about Transformers as a cinematic universe, I’m curious to see how things will play out. For starters, I REALLY hope they plan on using different directors for the spin-off films. I’m beyond burnt on Michael Bay making the same damn movie since 2007, and the Transformers series as a whole could use a different and refreshing POV.

With all that said, when you look at the box office numbers for Transformers, and the news for more sequels and spin-offs, it’s easy to see how some will believe in the chances of Transformers having a shot to compete with Marvel as a cinematic universe, but I can’t see it happening.

Sure, with new directors (hopefully) and writers, there’s a chance for Transformers turning the corner from a critical standpoint, but there’s a big noticeable gap, when you’re trying to compare overall legacies. Marvel is universally praised as the elite brand for superhero films. Meanwhile, the Transformers series is more of a running joke than anything, and we all know about Michael Bay’s reputation as a filmmaker.

Any thoughts on this?