The Transformers franchise has been in trouble for a while now, with the last full-on movie — 2017’s The Last Knight, which actually began in Medieval times with King Arthur — severely underperforming and the spin-off Bumblebee not doing too hot either. And yet as recently as January there was talk of two separate Transformers movies en route. Now, as per The Hollywood Reporter, an animated movie is in the works from people involved in two of modern movies’ biggest brands.
According to THR, Paramount Animation is working on a prequel, taking the franchise back to its animated roots. And to pull it off, they’ve tapped Ant-Man and the Wasp writers Andrew Barrier and Gabriel Ferrari to handle the screenplay. And to direct, they’ve named John Collier, co-director of the Oscar-winning Toy Story 4.
The Transformers franchise began life as an animated TV show that ran four seasons starting in 1984, although its real genesis lies in a line of Hasbro toys, the show largely existing to sell them. The first Transformers movie, called Transformers: The Movie, came in 1986 and while not a box office success, its position in screen history is sealed: It was the last screen work Orson Welles did before dying, with him heard not seen as villainous planet Unicron.
(Via THR)