A couple of months ago we learned that Paramount was not about to let their cash-cow Transformers franchise just go extinct after this year’s $1.1 billion-grossing fourth film and that they hired Akiva Goldsman (I Robot, Insurgent) to bring together ideas and a writing team for various sequels and spinoffs to come, essentially creating their own Cinematic Universe to – at least financially – give Marvel a run for its money.
Now we’re hearing from Deadline that Paramount is not messing around when it comes to those who are going to write the scripts for these forthcoming movies. The studio has finalized their writing room and it consists of: Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone), Zak Penn (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: The Last Stand) and Jeff Pinkner (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, TV’s Lost & Fringe). And they’re apparently not even done as more writers are to be added in the coming months.
There’s no word yet on which individual films each of them will be working on – will they all write each of them together or be split off into groups? – or, indeed, what those separate films will be exactly. But it’s interesting to note that Ehren Kruger’s name is nowhere to be seen, he who has at least co-written all of the sequels thus far. Similarly Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci aren’t in the mix either, the duo that wrote the first two films in the franchise and helped shape it along with Bay’s bombastic directorial sensibilities.
The expanded Transformers Cinematic Universe, as it were, is now even more of a priority than the franchise was before, not just as a task set for New Motion Picture Group President Marc Evans to get more big movies made but with the studio wanting to perpetuate the so-called “feeding” of tentpole franchises in the hugely successful Marvel manner. Transformers 5 (although we don’t yet know if Bay will return to direct) will undoubtedly be on the cards first but beyond that, all we know is we have LOTS AND LOTS more giant robots messily hitting each other to come.
Source: Deadline