Paramount has called time on the impressive Transformers Writers Room, with Deadline reporting that Oscar-winning scribe Akiva Goldsman has been given the go-ahead to pen a script for Transformers 5. It’s understood that Mark Wahlberg is on board for the blockbuster sequel, while director Michael Bay remains on the fence for now.
Assembling a diverse range of genre writers, the studio’s creative experiment at one point hosted Zak Penn, Robert Kirkman, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Andrew Barrer, Gabrial Ferrari, Christina Hodson, Lindsey Beer, Ken Nolan and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. But it’s Goldsman, best known for his work on A Beautiful Mind, that has landed the gig, though Bay is yet to commit to the script pitched.
Taking to Twitter to address early reports connecting him to Transformers 5, the franchise stalwart revealed that he has met with executive producer Steven Spielberg, but all signs indicate that the director will put pen to paper eventually.
Re: directing TF5. No, it’s not official. I have not committed to any idea as of yet. Just met with Steven and we are discussing.
— Michael Bay (@michaelbay) September 17, 2015
Above anything else, Paramount’s Writing Room for Transformers – far and away its flagship tentpole franchise – is a symptom of the studio making strides to expand and diversify the world of Cyberton and its towering, autonomous bots. Now that Goldsman has been installed for Transformers 5, the alleged blueprint moving forward will herald an animated movie scripted by Andrew Barrer and Gabrial Ferrari, before Jeff Pinkner and Lindsey Beer are given a shot at a live-action sequel in the years that follow.
Rotating screenwriters is certainly one way to tackle the potential onset of franchise fatigue, and while the Transformers franchise is generally disregarded as CG-laden fluff, it’s heartening to see Paramount’s big wigs laying the foundations for the series to take a new direction.
Whether or not Paramount can secure Michael Bay for a fifth mainline installment in the lucrative sci-fi series will be told in time, though the studio will want to act quickly if Transformers 5 is to make its tentative 2017 release window.