Transformers 4 Will Be Different, But Not A Reboot, And Cheaper Says Michael Bay

Transformers 4 will be different, but not a reboot, and have a smaller budget, director Michael Bay has told the Los Angeles Times .

Bay has previously gone said that the new movie – which will be his last in the franchise (though probably not the last in the franchise) – will have an all-new cast, but, he now clarifies, “It’s not a reboot… That’s maybe the wrong word. I don’t want to say ‘reboot’ because then people will think we’re doing a Spider-Man and starting from the beginning. We’re not. We’’e taking the story that you’ve seen — the story we’ve told in three movies already — and we’re taking it in a new direction. But we’re leaving those three as the history. It all still counts... We’re moving on to something different.”

Bay even hints that one place the fourth film may go is into outer space (wonder if the the Transformers will meet any Ninja Turtles ?).

“That feels like the way to go, doesn’t it?” teases Bay. “I want to go a little off [the planet] but I don’t want to go too sci-fi. I still want to keep it grounded.” (Grounded? A film series about giant shape-shifting robots? Sounds pretty sci-fi to us already. Even Margaret Atwood would have trouble re-branding that as “speculative fiction”.)

Bay also reveals that the new film will scale back the budget somewhat to around $165 million, about $30 million less than 2011's Transformers: Dark Of The Moon . But these things have a habit of ballooning.