TRANSFORMERS Writers Room Creates Pitches For Five More Potential Films

Paramount has big plans for its Transformers franchise, and the studio recently created a writers room (similar to the ones that work for TV shows) to generate ideas for more movies. Batman & Robin writer Akiva Goldsman led the group, which also included people like The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 writer Jeff Pinkner, and many more. Now Deadline is reporting that "the experiment is over" and the results have come in.

Since recent reports of the storyline for Transformers 5 seem to have been completely fabricated (as I suspected in my write-up; I was seemingly the only person who even cared to check the questionable sourcing on that story), it seems like they're working from a fresh slate. Goldsman now reportedly has enough to write Transformers 5 for star Mark Wahlberg, and it's intended for Bay to come back to direct with production beginning in June of next year, although the director hasn't been officially confirmed yet. Ant-Man production writers Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari are now definitely writing an animated prequel, confirming a story from a few months ago, and though nine pitches were ultimately made to the big bosses, executive producer Steven Spielberg didn't think there was enough story there to support all of them:

I had heard they discovered that some of the ideas didn’t sustain full features and that maybe the universe wasn’t as big as suspected, but insiders say that when all the pitches and treatments were reviewed, that Spielberg felt there were potential movies in five of the nine. They haven’t committed to anything now. What they’ll do now is plant seeds from all of the ideas into the Transformers sequel that Goldsman is writing — the one that is expected to be the last one that Bay directs himself.

Yeah, that's just great — go ahead and plant seeds in this movie that may never ultimately be answered, because that worked out so well for The Amazing Spider-Man franchise. What a nightmare this franchise turned out to be. But it continues to make major money for Paramount, so unless people suddenly stop paying to see these movies (I'm begging you all: please stop paying to see these movies), the studio is going to continue to put resources into making them that could be far better spent on other projects.