Transformers: Age of Extinction Producer Says The New Film Is Not A Reboot
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Before Transformers: Age of Extinction went into production, director Michael Bay said that the movie would be a complete re-design of the franchise, rather than an outright reboot. While it remains to be seen what exactly that means, one of Age of Extinction‘s producers chimed in with how Transformers 4 will build off of the last film in the series, Dark of the Moon.
In an interview with The Hollywood News, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura talks about Age of Extinction and why the film series needed to go in another direction after the success of Dark of the Moon in 2011. While Age of Extinction will acknowledge the events of Dark of the Moon, Transformers 4 will follow new characters. Di Bonaventura compares what Bay and his team are doing with Age of Extinction to the Star Wars film franchise. Di Bonaventura says:
It’s definitely not a reboot. It’s an interesting question about what you should call it. On a certain level it’s a continuation of the previous stories, in the fact that it acknowledges what has transpired before it. It acknowledges in the last movie, the destruction of Chicago, it’s actually something that carries through the sort of emotional repercussions of that, not unlike 9/11 has emotional repercussions in the real world. In a fantasy world there are repercussions to what occurred.
That plays into the movie, moving forwards with a totally different human cast, who doesn’t know anything about the other humans, it’s not a reboot, but a continuation, yet you’re continuing with a new cast and group of characters. It was a big decision to do that.
We miss our friends that we did the first three with, and they were great, and they probably could’ve done more. But the advantage of doing it this way is that it feels almost like a first movie. It’s a very different dynamic than I’ve seen in a movie, I’m very curious. I guess Star Wars did that a little bit, but not so close together, the way we’re doing it.
The big question is: will audiences be receptive to the new additions to the Transformers film franchise?
Recently, film composer Steve Jablonsky was added to Age of Extinction‘s post-production roster. Jablonsky scored the first three movies in the Transformers film series and often collaborates with Michael Bay, having also composed music for Pain & Gain and The Island. According to the composer, Age of Extinction will feature new music unlike anything we heard from the first film trilogy.
Transformers 4 takes place in Chicago and centers on an inventor named Cade, his teenage daughter Tessa, and her boyfriend Shane, as they “discover a buried Transformer which sets the stage for the return of the rest of the Transformers.” The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Stanley Tucci, Sophia Myles, T.J. Miller, Victoria Summer, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, Kelsey Grammer, and Peter Cullen.
Transformers: Age of Extinction hits theaters everywhere on June 27, 2014, in 3D and IMAX.
