During last night’s CinemaCon event at Las Vegas, Michael Bay took to the stage to talk about his soon-to-be-released Pain & Gain, where he also announced some casting details for Transformers 4 – which is a Paramount Pictures production, too. Those details came in the form of a casting call for Stanley Tucci, who will star in Bay’s fourth adaption of the popular Hasbro toy line.
The news came with precious little details other than the director confirming that Tucci is on board. If previous instalments are anything to go by, however, the American actor could play a sensational, over-the-top caricature in the vein of John Turturro’s Agent Simmons. Although, one would hope this isn’t the case. In previous Transformers’ films, Bay has drafted in the likes of John Malkovich and Jon Voight as though to balance acting with the overwhelming amount of CGI and bombastic explosions. Mind you, at this point in time, we just have to hope that the director has learned from his missteps.
Because, if there’s one thing for sure, it’s that Michael Bay has promised a fresh visualisation of the Cybertron universe for Transformers 4 – a visualisation that will also utilise the IMAX format as part of a five film deal with Paramount. While this won’t be the first time the filmmaker has shot using IMAX – Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen contained a ten minute sequence – for the fourth film, the format will be implemented on a larger scale to fully harness the optical potential. Paramount’s IMAX partnership will also include Christopher Nolan’s upcoming, mind-bending thriller Interstellar, which is penned for release November 7th, 2014 and is beginning to assemble an excellent cast list.
Back in the realm of Autobots and Decepticons, however, there have been some creative shifts in the Transformers machine since Dark of the Moon in 2011. Characters such as Shia LaBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whitely have been dropped in favour of Nicola Peltz (The Last Airbender) and Jack Reynor (What Richard Did). Plus, with Mark Walhberg to reunite with the director for the forthcoming film – which will also be filmed in China as Paramount looks to harness the growing power of the global box office – it’s as though all the superfluous mechanized parts have been stripped away in the hope to create a lean, entertaining film that still retains a sense of continuity with the previous instalments. At least, that’s the theory.
Transformers 4 hits theatres June 27th, 2014? Are you excited or bemused that Michael Bay will have the opportunity to assault our senses using the IMAX format? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
