It’s hard to get excited about any updates from the Transformers camp lately. The passing of Peter Cullen, who made Autobots leader Optimus Prime feel more alive than ever, still feels utterly shocking. That parent company, Paramount-Skydance, is in the midst of an acquisition that literally nobody wanted and is likewise casting a shadow over any developments. Still, the show must go on: the ink hasn’t even dried on the Paramount-Skydance-Warner merger, but the studio is apparently going full steam ahead on the next chapter of the Transformers saga.
Fortunately, longtime producer Steven Spielberg will be assisting in a much larger capacity than he might have previously. The filmmaker has been involved with literally every live-action Transformers film since Michael Bay revitalized the franchise back in 2007; as the newly minted Skydance works to bring the saga into a new era, he’s taking on more creative responsibility. Variety reports that Spielberg will “oversee all creative aspects of the live-action film” alongside producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Their goal: to bring the Transformers saga back to the feel of the first few Bay-directed films, which focused more on the rock ‘em, sock ‘em thrill of massive robot alien brawls and less on convoluted worldbuilding.
