Paramount Pictures has dated a new, untitled live-action "Transformers" film to be released in theaters on June 24, 2022, TheWrap has confirmed.
As Paramount and Hasbro press forward to revamp the franchise, two new "Transformers" projects are being developed simultaneously, with Joby Harold ("Army of the Dead") and James Vanderbilt ("Zodiac") each penning a script. Plot details are being kept under wraps and no directors are currently attached to either.
Meanwhile, Josh Cooley, winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film for "Toy Story 4," will direct an untitled animated "Transformers" prequel with a script written by "Ant-Man and the Wasp" scribes Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. Hasbro's entertainment studio, eOne, will develop and produce the film along with Paramount Animation.
For years, "Transformers" was the ultimate critic-proof franchise. Reviews for films like "Revenge of the Fallen" and "Dark of the Moon" were overwhelmingly negative, but fans and families showed up in droves every summer that one of these films came out, to the tune of over $1 billion each.
"Transformers" peaked in 2011 with its third installment, "Dark of the Moon," with $1.12 billion, a year in which Paramount led all studios with $1.95 billion grossed domestically with 19.2 percent market share.
All 6 'Transformers' Movies Ranked, Worst to Best, Including 'Bumblebee'
"Transformers" is probably the weirdest and craziest major movie franchise -- an admirable thing if you're an aficionado of action-heavy genre trash like I am. "Bumblebee" represents a departure from the Michael Bay movies, in that it's generally calmer and more, well, normal. So how does the prequel stack up against the past decade of Bay's robot madness?
6. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (2009) Everything about this one is just ... too much. And the Arcee (RC) Twins, a.k.a. the Racial Caricature Bots, are simply inexcusable.
5. "Transformers: Age of Extinction" (2014) Michael Bay's libertarian screed is amusing enough, but kind of frustratingly straightforward. We prefer when these movies wallow in paranoid government conspiracy theories.
4. "Transformers: The Last Knight" (2017) Easily the most incomprehensible of the "Transformers" movies, but also the funniest -- thanks in no small part to Anthony Hopkins having the absolute time of his life. It may also be the most visually striking of all of Michael Bay's movies.
3. "Transformers" (2007) By the standards of this franchise, the first movie was the closest to being a "normal" film. It's wonderful, but not quite excessive enough.
2. "Bumblebee" (2018) It's more chill, more coherent and generally more sane than the other ones. And, yes, it's delightful. Hailee Steinfeld is a miracle for the way she's able to conjure up all those emotions acting against a CGI robot.
1. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (2011) The third movie, however, is exactly excessive enough, with a third act that's just a solid hour of urban robot warfare. Plus there's John Malkovich being weird and Frances McDormand as the requisite government stooge. To cap it all off, you've got the traitorous Leonard Nimoy-bot attempting to usher in the apocalypse from Trump Tower in Chicago -- in 2017, no other "Transformers" movie feels that correct.
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How does Travis Knight's prequel "Bumblebee" stand up against the Michael Bay robot epics?
"Transformers" is probably the weirdest and craziest major movie franchise -- an admirable thing if you're an aficionado of action-heavy genre trash like I am. "Bumblebee" represents a departure from the Michael Bay movies, in that it's generally calmer and more, well, normal. So how does the prequel stack up against the past decade of Bay's robot madness?
