Transformers was also illegally downloaded around 19 million times, according to the study. Michael Bay's first film based on the toy line starred Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky, a teenager involved in a war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Megan Fox also starred in the movie, and her presence most likely bolstered the high illegal download count.
Paramount PicturesLorenzo Di Bonaventura and Michael Bay are reuniting for a sequel in the Transformers movie series, the producer told MTV News. “Michael’s going to direct it,” Di Bonaventura said Monday. “It will be in the summer of 2014.”
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The first three Transformers films were a massive success for Paramount, earning more than $2.6 billion worldwide in unadjusted grosses, so it’s unsurprising that the studio would want to continue the series. (2011’s installment, Dark of the Moon, also earned three Oscar nominations for sound and visual effects.) Di Bonaventura said that he and Bay were still in early stages of development process, but they wanted to reinvent the saga to pave the way for a new mythology. Bay showed a willingness to shake up the ensemble in Dark of the Moon, when he replaced Megan Fox with Rosie Huntington-Whitely as Sam’s love interest.
“I think we really are going to do a reboot there,” Di Bonaventura said. “[But] what that’s going to be, we don’t even know yet…. We’ve got to get a story first.” The producer indicated that none of the cast of the original three are signed for a sequel, but it’s likely that he and Bay would create at least a few new characters for the film. “It’s a hybrid because there’s still continuity going on, and there will be a lot of new cast,” he said. “Whether there’s anybody from the first cast, we don’t even know yet. But it’s going to be a whole new story.”
“But the characters that would certainly come along would be Optimus and Bumblebee, I’m sure.”
