Michael Bay to direct TF4 - Peter Cullen returns as Optimus

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Yes this may be good for his wallet, but isn't it bad for his career if he wants to try out new movies? Won't other producers just refer to him as the Transformers guy for the rest of his life in Hollywood? It's kind of like George Lucas, who most people recognize for Star Wars and Indy.

Wasn't he already just "The explosions guy" anyway? Besides the Bad Boys series he didn't seem to have much of a reputation outside of that IIRC.
No, wait...there was the "US Army" bit too.

Either way, it's a safe bet it'll be more of the same - light on plot/characterisation, long on length, big on explosions and the US Army, and a few decent toys.
Maybe they can can TF Prime just as it's really getting into the swing of things for it this time.

[GoktimusPrime]

If the next Transformers movie actually:
+ Has a coherent story/plot
+ Treats the Transformers as characters and not set pieces/space-monsters
+ Focuses on the Autobots as the primary protagonists instead of humans
+ Develops the Decepticons as meaningful antagonists - more than just mere complications for the protagonists
+ Doesn't contain gratuitous female booty shots
...I'll eat my hat.

Wasn't he already just "The explosions guy" anyway? Besides the Bad Boys series he didn't seem to have much of a reputation outside of that IIRC.
No, wait...there was the "US Army" bit too.

Bay's relationship with the military is very impressive, you have to admit that. Few other directors can get that level of intimate cooperation with the US armed forces. And it makes sense for the story to involve the military, as surely humans won't just sit around while alien robots wage an intergalactic war on Earth (like say, in TFPrime where they appear to be awfully inactive (<_<)). But at the same time I don't like it when the focus on the military gets overdone and takes the limelight away from the Transformers.

Either way, it's a safe bet it'll be more of the same - light on plot/characterisation, long on length, big on explosions and the US Army, and a few decent toys.

The toys will be up to HasTak. Decent may be the best to hope for... I don't have great faith in media-based TF toys and much prefer TFs to be made as toys first, but for the live action movies I can understand the need to design them as screen characters first (not so much for the cartoons though).

Maybe they can can TF Prime just as it's really getting into the swing of things for it this time.

Oooh, maybe they'll axe TF Prime just as things are getting really good, just like they did with Beast Wars and Animated!

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

+ Doesn't contain gratuitous female booty shots

To be fair, I quite enjoyed the gratuitous female booty shots.

Bay's relationship with the military is very impressive, you have to admit that.

I'll pay it's impressive, but I'd kind of like a Transformers movie to be more about the actual Transformers than their pet human soldiers.
I mean, it's sort of like if Michael Bay did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and made them space aliens or something instead of mutant ninja turtles...oh, wait.

The toys will be up to HasTak. Decent may be the best to hope for...

Credit where credit's due, between the legions of Bumblebees we have got some sweet toys out of the Movie lines, especially some of the Scouts. They're mostly characters who didn't actually appear in the movies, sure, but toys like Deluxe Wreckage and DotM Voyager Skyhammer are pretty damn good. I really liked RotF Brawn despite his kibble, Ransack/Divebomb was just awesome (I mean, a biplane? That's freaking cool), and Recon Ironhide is a solid figure with oodles of guns. And of course RotF gave us Voyager Bludgeon, even if the design sort of predates RotF.

Oooh, maybe they'll axe TF Prime just as things are getting really good, just like they did with Beast Wars and Animated!

Yay! C'mon Hasbro, bring back Animated for Season 4 please. *sigh*

[GoktimusPrime]

I'll pay it's impressive, but I'd kind of like a Transformers movie to be more about the actual Transformers than their pet human soldiers.

^agree

Credit where credit's due, between the legions of Bumblebees we have got some sweet toys out of the Movie lines, especially some of the Scouts. They're mostly characters who didn't actually appear in the movies, sure, but toys like Deluxe Wreckage and DotM Voyager Skyhammer are pretty damn good. I really liked RotF Brawn despite his kibble, Ransack/Divebomb was just awesome (I mean, a biplane? That's freaking cool), and Recon Ironhide is a solid figure with oodles of guns. And of course RotF gave us Voyager Bludgeon, even if the design sort of predates RotF.

Well exactly - most of the best designs from movieverse were toys not designed for the film. Toys designed as toys... the way Transformers should be IMO. (but then when it happens, some people complain that the toys aren't "screen accurate" even though those toys came first... Hasbro just can't win )

[griffin]

The reason why the non-cast toys were probably better was because they had more time to engineer them. 18 months is a rough time frame for normal TFs toys, but the Movie toys have to be rushed out in under 12... and even still, script or cast changes during the last 12 months are pretty much too late to change in the toyline (Optimus Swords, Wreckage in TF1, Skids & Mudflap in TF3) and we saw how much Bay likes to change his mind while filming, and even in post-production (TF3 was supposed to have the Twins in it, and Megatron was supposed to live at the end).

This link is of the Hasbro tour at BotCon 2007, which details the lengthy process they have for creating Transformers (scroll down to just on half-way, you can go back and read the rest later). It's a good archival resource which I've been meaning to re-upload for a couple years now.

The rest of the BotCon 2007 report hasn't been uploaded yet (I'm still editing a few pages), so don't click on any of the links at the bottom, as they don't go anywhere yet.

[griffin]

Oh, and that Hasbro Tour showed the process when Hasbro were the senior "partner" for the First Movie project. With TF3 (and even TF2 to an extent), Bay seemed to be in the position of having the final say, so the Hasbro designers just gave character suggestions (like Shockwave, Laserbeak, Mirage, Wheeljack & Prime's trailer) and just had to work with what he gave them (Dino & Que were examples of this).

[GoktimusPrime]

Oh, and that Hasbro Tour showed the process when Hasbro were the senior "partner" for the Movie project. With TF3 (and even TF2 to an extent), Bay seemed to be in the position of having the final say, so the Hasbro designers just gave character suggestions (like Shockwave, Laserbeak, Mirage, Wheeljack & Prime's trailer) and just had to work with what he gave them (Dino & Que were examples of this).

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