With nearly $700 million in worldwide box office booty, DreamWorks’ and Paramount’s Transformers was bound to get a sequel or four, but the first follow-up may come sooner than many expected. Daily Variety today confirmed rumors that Transformers 2 is on a fast track for a 2009 release, June 26 to be exact. Having put aside his anger over Paramount’s decision to shun the Blu-ray Disc home video format, director Michael Bay is expected to return to the helm and exec producer Steven Spielberg and star Shia LaBeouf are likely to be on board for another giant robot rumble.
The looming threat of a Hollywood talent strike is viewed as a major reason why DreamWorks and Paramount are rushing into production on Transformers 2. The visual effects crews are most likely to feel the crunch, since so much of the film will involve CG animation and other digital effects. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) handled the lion’s share of vfx work on the first film and is expected to be hard at work on the sequel.
Speilberg and David Geffen, who co-founded DreamWorks with Jeffrey Katzenberg, have threatened to back out of their deal with Paramount over differences with its parent company, Viacom. However, the feud shouldn’t affect the forward progression of the Transformers franchise since both sides stand to benefit greatly from upcoming films in the series.
After having a great year with a leading voice role in Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up and back-to-back hits Distrubia and Transformers, LaBeouf will next star with Harrison Ford in the Speilberg-directed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which is set for release on May 22.
