Michael Bay is so big, he doesn't even need Variety or The Hollywood Reporter to break news about his next move. The director used his personal website on Monday to confirm a report from producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura about his involvement in "Transformers 4."
"There has been a lot of speculation about what I'm going to do next and when or if I will do another 'Transformers,'" Bay wrote. "So let me set the record straight: I have just concluded a deal with Paramount to do two movies, but it won't be two 'Transformers.' I will first do 'Pain & Gain' with Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Then I will do the next 'Transformers' for release on June 29, 2014."
Bay has been working on bringing "Pain and Gain" to the big screen for years. The film -- based on a Miami New Times article -- follows two bodybuilders who get involved in a kidnapping plot; supposedly the tone is somewhere along the lines of "Pulp Fiction" and "Fargo." Wahlberg had allegedly passed on the role in December, but that doesn't appear to be the case, per Bay.
"[It's], unbelievably, a true story," Johnson told Moviefone last week of "Pain and Gain." "We're in pre-production, and we're all -- meaning my team and Paramount and Michael Bay -- crossing 't's and dotting 'i's. I've known Michael for some time, this has been a passion project of his, he gave me the script to read years ago, I loved it and wanted to make it then."
As for "Transformers 4," don't necessarily expect Shia LaBeouf or anyone else in the cast to return.
"No, it's so silly," DiBonaventure said to MTV. "We gotta get a story first. You can't pick characters until you have a story. It's a funny thing, it's not... what I perceive 'Spider-Man' to be is just a redoing of the whole thing. It's not [that]. It's an evolution, there's still continuity that's going on. There'll be a lot of new cast, whether there's anyone from the first we don't even know yet. The truth is, there's going to be a whole new story. The characters that will come along will be Optimus and Bumblebee, I'm sure."
[MichaelBay.com via Slashfilm]