Malkovich and McDormand join Transformers

April Fool’s Day is still over a week away, but this story really had us wondering if we’d woken up after accidentally sleeping for a week.

See, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand have both signed on to Michael Bay’s Transformers 3 . The latter will have a big role as the National Intelligence Director, and Malkovich will play Shia Labeouf’s character’s first boss.

We’re guessing neither of them have the seen the second Transformers flick, and were won over by Bay’s child-like enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Knocked Up ’s Ken Jeong has also signed up to an unspecified role.

Bay reported the news himself on his official website , confirming that the actors had been “locked in”. We assume that doesn’t mean he’s holding them against their will (though we wouldn’t be surprised).

The director also revealed the shooting locations for the threequel, writing that “LA, Chicago, Washington DC, Florida, Texas, Africa, Moscow, and China” are all on the list. Pre-shoots are set to commence in about a month’s time.

Finally, a new Autobot was revealed on Bay’s site – taking the form of the Ferrari 458 Italia. Slick. No word yet just which character this new ‘bot will be and what part it will play in the film.

Transformers 3 is set to be released in July 2011, a whisker under two years after the second robot mash-up

A sign of good things to come, or that anybody will sell their soul if the price is right?