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    Transformers 4 will be a reboot

    New characters expected for robot film franchise, but Michael Bay will be back

    The ‘Transformers’ franchise is getting ‘rebooted’, just five years after the beginning of the series.

    The first robots-in-disguise flick was released back in 2007 and spawned two sequels. Between them they have made £1.6 billion.

    Now producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura let slip to MTV (at a US toy fair) that ‘Transformers 4' will re-set the series and introduce a raft of new faces.

    [Related story: Transformers star is style icon]

    He said: "There will be a lot of new cast. Whether there's anybody from the first cast, we don't even know yet. The truth is it's going to be a whole new story."

    Series star Shia LaBeouf has already said he doesn’t want to make any more ‘Transformers’ films.

    Confusingly however, di Bonaventura added that some characters might be back, including ‘bots Optimus and Bumblebee, and we should think of ‘Transformers 4’ as an ‘evolution’. “There's still continuity that's going on”, he said.

    Another sequel... new characters expected for 'Transformers 4'

    An example of this is director Michael Bay, who - contrary to earlier reports - has also signed up to make the film. It will be released in 2014.

    Deadline report that Bay "went crazy" on di Bonaventura for spilling the beans.

    Proper reboot or not, the news shows Hollywood studios are letting less time than ever pass before re-starting successful series’.

    This summer sees the release of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, a totally updated version of the web-slinging action franchise with an all new cast. The last Tobey Maguire film was only finished in 2007.

    [Related feature: The Amazing Spider-Man trailer explained]

    Next year a new Superman adventure (‘Man of Steel’) will hit cinemas a mere seven years after the release of ‘Superman Returns’.

    Has Hollywood run out of ideas, or are you looking forward to ‘Transformers 4’? Let us know below...

     
    • Jamie  •  Ilford, England  •  3 months ago
      A great idea providing Bay is either incarcerated or left to destroy some other movie franchise. Good Luck
      • Jay 3 months ago
        Destroyed??? I think the box office figures might prove you wrong.
      • DAN 3 months ago
        Bay didn't destroy it. Blame the writers, he doesn't write the "stories".
      • Simon B 3 months ago
        What did Bay do wrong? He made a big loud 2 hr toy commercial for the popcorn masses that made Hollywood and Mattel a lot of money.

        @ Jay, your point is irrelevant... Scarface did terribly at the box office; that is just one example.
    • Strontium_99  •  Birmingham, England  •  3 months ago
      I am fairly tolerant when it comes to movies. I will give remakes a fair chance. Some are good some are bad. But this, a reboot after such a short time. This is movie making at its most laziest. I understand Hollywood is all about the money, they don’t make any, or hardly any, movies for art sake. But this is not good. There are loads of talented young film makes breaking surface. Give them a chance, MAKE SOMETHING NEW…!!!
      • Judge Dredd 3 months ago
        ... tend to agree and millions of stories out there which never see the light of day simply because the persons producing them are NEVER seen by anyone in Hollywood. If they cut all the red-tape the back-stabbing, the contract obligation krapola and simply had a way for an author to submit a plot for a movie without it being stolen (storyline/plot would be read by a lawyer before being submitted and assured some intellectual protection) we could all send in material and maybe some of it could be accepted.
    • Lisa Marie  •  Hemel Hempstead, England  •  3 months ago
      remake the orginal transformers film live action!!
      • Gavin 3 months ago
        YES!!!!!
      • M.s.S 1 month 10 days ago
        erm isn't that what they 'tried to do' ?
    • Michael l  •  3 months ago
      I love the whole transformers thing - but the cgi effects are just too much to follow, in the last film everything was happening so fast i just couldn't take it in... maybe i'm getting old !
      • James 3 months ago
        Your not getting old you just couldn't work out who the Go-Bots were in fact unless Peter Cullen had done the voice of Prime know one would even know it was Bayformers now would they especially us G1 fans lol?!!!
    • Kingsi  •  Stavanger, Norway  •  3 months ago
      As a child of the 80's I was monumentally unimpressed by these Transformer movies. The animation CGI is amazing but completely useless if the characters look c**p and there is too much going on. I want to see a darker more realistc story. Perhaps a remake of the original Transformers animated movie. Now that would be cool
      • James 3 months ago
        Totally agree with you in fact if it wasn't for the fact Peter Cullens voice played the part of Prime I wouldn't recognise it at all! This Bayformers is more like Go-Bots! #$%$!!
    • edward  •  3 months ago
      It amazes me that people can be satisfied with films that have no storyline, its just a sign of the times that the human mind can be satisfied with special effects, no storyline, dire acting, but sadly its the way most films are now. Its not just movies, its also televison, music.If somebody would have told me 20 years ago that people would listen and buy music made by people who cant write songs, play instruments, I would have laughed, Televison same, how unevolved must the intellect be to satisfied with coronation street etc. Its all just pulp entertainment for an ever decreasing mentality.
    • Reina  •  Fraserburgh, Scotland  •  3 months ago
      It will likely be as insulting to the intellect as the previous three. I wouldn't be surprised if once again it will be 99% human drama and 1% robots, as before. They'll probably have more leg humping mini robots, some gormless looking male to play a gormless idiot while reducing any female cast to sex toys, damels in distress and generally insane - the usual Hollywood nonsense, and other characters being a pathetic joke.

      The revamp will probably be about, once again, some American male teen wanting a girlfriend and getting some annoying car that turns into an equally annoying robot while any other bots will be killed off after a couple of seconds of screen time.
      And the American flag will be shown in many of the shots while the movie is also used as little more than an army recruitment drive while waving the flag to the usual 'USA A-OKAY!' drivel that makes many movies today way too heavy handed with the patriotic enforcement while the rest of the world is once again shown to be stupid adn incapable of doing anything without the Americans saving the day once again.

      Wouldn't it be better to just go for an animated series of movies instead of the live action human drama with robot cameo's movies? The 1986 movie, although it was little more than an 80/90 minute toy advert, was pretty good and a lot better than the live action movies by a long shot.
    • georgebest73  •  Gravesend, England  •  3 months ago
      never liked this movie,lots of noises nothing else........
    • Greedy bankers deserve no ...  •  3 months ago
      Disney own Marvel so are making money out of all the comic heroes turned into film except Spiderman and Xmen both licenced out

      Warner own DC so Batman, Superman to earn money from

      Paramount have GI JOe and Transformers backed by Hasbro who see it as a marketing ploy to sell more toys and make them plenty of money so why not

      As a fan I don;t want Bay doing anymore but Spielberg trusts him obviously .

      I think they could do the film with an older version of Sam and Carly as adults so bring in Daniel

      As for characters we will probably see Galvatron ( reformed from Megatron) , Ultra Magnus and Unicron to name a few
    • Jonathan  •  Brighton, England  •  3 months ago
      It's easy send the transformers back in time to the 80's, a whole generation can see a live action version of how we actually remember them
    • Mark  •  3 months ago
      They have to keep Optimus prime and Bumble bee or my son will be gutted!!
    • Simon B  •  St Albans, England  •  3 months ago
      They should re-Boot it in the a.ss.
    • Leeds  •  3 months ago
      Its interesting to note that the movie voted the greatest of all time 'Shawshank Redemption', has no women in it, no kids, and no pets, no special effects, no 3D, its not a remake. It relies on a good story line, courtesy of the greatest author of all time 'Stephen King', and relies on good acting. Time these clowns in hollywood made an effort.
    • Simon  •  3 months ago
      I watched the last film (3) last week, it was terrible and to have Leonard Nimoy actually saying the same lines as he did in Star Trek is just cheap , lazy script writing . Rubbish film
    • danger_moose  •  Bristol, England  •  3 months ago
      Well we also have reboot/remakes of these films to look forward too: The Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Barbarella, The Crow, Excalibur, Akira, Robocop, Dune, Tomb Raider, Total Recall, Judge Dredd (the original sucked), -Highlander, Shortcircuit, Scarface etc etc etc....
      Hollywood is truly defunct of ideas!
    • Acondo  •  Binghamton, United States  •  3 months ago
      Hope they know it isn't gonna make the film any less rubbish
    • alex  •  3 months ago
      Of course Hollywood has ran out of ideas, everything has to have the obligatory "IN 3D" nowadays just to entice, and even that's s#*t. Lucas has just redone the Phantom Menace in 3D so we probably now have 5 more years of the rest being done, so less new films, just old ones being forced into 3D.
    • chad  •  St Albans, England  •  3 months ago
      reboot, that sucks, i already have an idea hollywood can use! and it took me 1 minute to figure out how to extend the story. so how can people who get paid and have the whole year to think not come up with anything better?
    • Philippa  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      i hope bumblebee will be back he one of the funny ones and we love him
    • matthew  •  Maidenhead, England  •  3 months ago
      To be fair, "Hollywood" makes hundreds of original films every single year. There is also a large selection of the so-called "Independent films" distributed too. The remake/reboot/sequel franchise is quite tiny when you think about it.
      What sucks is they can't get these things right after so many years in development hell.
      If it doesn't quite work don't flog a dead horse. These films tend to be made for better or worse so that studios do not lose the rights to the titles...and we have to put up with varying degress of aptitude.