Mark Wahlberg: The new Shia LaBeouf? Michael Bay and Paramount announced Thursday that Wahlberg, who stars in Bay's real life crime pic Pain & Gain, will lead the franchise sequel Transformers 4. "An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy," said Bay in a statement.
more »
A surge of intrigue rippled through the blogosphere this week when a rumor hit, sourced from the barest of suggestions (a secondhand casting breakdown), that Michael Bay's fourth and allegedly final outing with the Transformers series might revolve around the rarest of Bay creatures: A female heroine. Sad, yes — Bay's filmography is so male-driven, his portfolio so stacked with binders full of supermodel-hot leading ladies, that even the slightest move toward gender equality in Bay's work force warrants an onslaught of hopeful speculation.
more »
Speaking with MTV, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed general details on a fourth planned movie in Paramount's Oscar-nominated Transformers series, which will indeed see Michael Bay returning behind the camera. (First, however, he may finally shoot his bodybuilding crime pic Pain & Gain.) Though it's expected we'll see main robot characters like Optimus Prime return, summer of 2014's Transformers 4 -- Trans4mers? Tr4nsformers? -- will be a reboot, di Lorenzo says, because of course we need a Transformers reboot already. Of course. [MTV]
Piranha 3DD may have been pushed to 2012, but the new teaser trailer suggests that the quality and spirit of the franchise hasn't been diluted. How could it have been, with returning fish survivor Ving Rhames dropping lines like, "Bring me my legs!" before gunning down the waters, Cherry Darling-style? Or with Baywatch's own lifeguard-slash-private eye extraordinaire, Mitch Buchannon, policing the bouncing bloodied bosoms fleeing from their piscine predators? All this and more -- "Double the terror, double the Ds" -- in today's Buzz Break!
FILM NEWS 