UPDATE: Michael Bay has posted the following on his blog, shootfortheedit.com.
Right now I'm not decided on Transformers 4
"Studio's are passing rumors but I'm not sure what I'm doing? I know I'm going to do Pain and Gain early spring but that's it for right now. I'm leaving all my options on the table. I've got several Studio meetings in the next two weeks." - Michael Bay
Vulture is reporting that the king of orange/blue lighting and sunsets is about seal up a deal that would bring him back for a fourth
Transformers. The director is currently working on a much smaller project,
Pain and Gain. It is believe that
Pain and Gain isn't very complex and he'll be able to work on pre-production for his fourth rock'em sock'em robots extravaganza while filming
Pain.
According to the insiders over at
Vulture, director Michael Bay has wanted to adapt
Pain and Gain almost since its publication in 1999. The sources says, "Without Pain, there’s no tit for tat. That’s Paramount’s leverage."
Paramount “does not have a closed deal” with Bay yet, but an official announcement could come as early as next week. Details on the next part of the
Transformers chapter are still a secret. The site goes to say that it will go deeper into the Transformers mythos, and that it will not be a prequel.
"Regular people might not care about bringing out a character like Sentinel Prime," says one of our insiders, referring to the little-known character who played a major part in last summer’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, "But believe me, fans of the series cared."
If both projects come to a deal, Bay may start shooting
Pain and Gain as early as next spring. After that, he would start filming the new
Transformers movie by winter of 2012.
"Spielberg does this all the time," says our insider, "where you’re doing art development and visual effects tests on your next movie while you’re still shooting the current one. The beauty of Michael doing Pain and Gain is that there’s no [technical] complexity to it compared to Transformers."