Corona | Coming Attractions

A couple of days ago news broke that Transformers director Michael ('splosions!) Bay wanted to make a little $20 million dollar movie called Pain and Gain. It turns out that while the public was thinking that was the only project on Bay's mind, his team were in quiet negotiations for Transformers 4. I'm guessing that the budget for TF4 would be higher than the $20 mil for Pain and Gain.

The money talks are said to be not complete but progressing smoothly. If a deal is reached Bay would still direct Pain and Gain first, with filming likely starting shortly after the new year rolls in. Transformers 4 would then follow in the fall of '12, likely for a summer 2013 release. If a storyline has been developed for Transformers 4, or a screenplay has started to be written, Paramount is keeping that fact hush-hush.

The Transformers movies have been hugely successful for Paramount and everyone involved with them, including toy company/originator of the 'bot, Hasbro. The third pic, Transformers: Dark of the Moon took in $1.1 billion worldwide, helping push Paramount to a record year at the box office.

Here's where the business side of Bay's deal gets interesting. Reportedly, Paramount is agreeing to Bay making Pain and Gain on the condition that he direct Transformers 4. The first movie has been a passion project of Bay for over a decade, and Paramount is leveraging that to get their star director back to the franchise.

Recently Steven Spielberg made some comments about bringing back Bay for a fourth movie. "I hope so, because I think he made the best of the three with this last one," The Bearded One said. "I certainly can't imagine anybody other than Michael being equipped to make another Transformers. He's invented a genre and he's got the secret formula."

And that's probably a sentence that Bay's negotiating team used to their advantage.