As director Michael Bay makes the rounds promoting his upcoming movie "Pain and Gain" more Transformers 4 details continue to emerge. In a recent interview with the
Huffington Post Bay reveals why he decided to return to the franchise, and that Peter Cullen will be reprising his role as Optimus Prime! The Transformers 4 info can be found in the quotes below, the full interview can be found by clicking
here.
Why do you want to do it? I was under the impression that you were done after "Transformers 3"?
I thought I was done. Then the ride came out [at Universal Studios Hollywood] and the two-and-a-half-hour lines. And then you're thinking, Oh my God, someone's going to take this over. And you start doing a lot of soul-searching. Like, OK, I'm about to do a little movie, "Pain & Gain" ... and the studio says they want to restart the franchise. And someone could come in here and screw it up, you know? So I'm thinking that if I do this last one, we set it on a new footing, we change a lot of things -- but we keep the history of the three in place. But we broaden it so it can be set up and be carried on -- it would have a better chance for survival, I guess. You know?
Right.
So it was just one of those things. It's like, when you look what's going on in the film business with the franchise frenzy right now, why is Cameron doing two more "Avatar" movies? Why is Peter Jackson doing three more "Hobbit" movies that are in the same world as "Lord of the Rings"? When you have a franchise, it's very hard to give it up.
Well, looking at how "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" did at the box office, it's obvious that people like these movies. So I can see your hesitation to give it up.
Well, no, you've got to do different things in life. But it doesn't matter. This is probably the last one.
So with the plot of "Transformers 4," it's not like the other three movies didn't happen? It's not a reboot?
No. We're basically taking from the history of where it was -- or where we left it in Chicago. And we're going to carry it on from there.
I spoke to Peter Cullen at Comic Con earlier this year. He said he doesn't know if he's going to be back as the voice of Optimus Prime or not. He'll be back, right?
Of course! Of course.
Before the first "Transformers," you got some heat for the whole "flames on Optimus" thing.
Yeah, I know.
But if you got rid of Peter Cullen, people would be extremely upset.
Listen, when I heard his voice, it gave me chills.