By With Michael Bay’s off again on again relationship with the Transformers franchise, it ended up being no surprise that he decided to direct Trannies 4, the reboot/not reboot sequel. The worst thing about all of this isn’t that Bay is coming back, it’s his reasoning behind his decision. In an interview with The Huffington Post Bay explained why he was coming back for the fourth film:
…the ride came out [at Universal Studios Hollywood] and the two-and-a-half-hour lines. And then you’re thinking, Oh my God, someone’s going to take this over…someone could come in here and screw it up, you know? So I’m thinking that if I do this last one, we set it on a new footing, we change a lot of things — but we keep the history of the three in place. But we broaden it so it can be set up and be carried on — it would have a better chance for survival, I guess…When you have a franchise, it’s very hard to give it up…But, the bottom line is, when you go to Universal Studios and you have the two-and-a-half-hour line, it’s hard to give it up. You birth a baby and you want to carry it on.
Oddly, I can understand where Bay is coming from. Sometimes it helps the cohesiveness of franchises when one singular person is helming it. Take the problems with Gary Ross and The Hunger Games for example. That franchise is most likely going to keep swapping directors left and right, and each one will have their own vision. It’s just going to make a mess of things. At the same time since Trannies 4 is going to start over with fresh new toys new characters, it might have been more beneficial if Bay let someone with fresh ideas and outlook play with his toys.
At the very least, you can blame the really long line for Transformers The Ride at Universal Studios. I’m assuming that’s where Bay makes all of his decisions, waiting in lines at theme parks.
[Huffington Post, via Indiewire]