Transformers 6 Producer Confirms Michael Bay Is Done Directing Franchise: 'I Don't Blame Him'

Transformers 6 Producer Confirms Michael Bay Is Done Directing Franchise: 'I Don't Blame Him'

Michael Bay directed the first five movies in the Transformers franchise, but don't even pencil him in for Transformers 6. Producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura just made it clear that Bay has moved on, and the next film won't even pick up from the events of Bay's 2017 movie Transformers: The Last Knight.

When Lorenzo Di Bonaventura was asked if the studio was looking for new directors for Transformers 6 or hoping they could still make Michael Bay an offer to return. Here's the producer's response:

I think Bay has made it really clear that he loved what he did and he’s not doing anymore. So I think the answer is we’re writing a script. At that point, once we get script we have a strong belief in, then we’ll begin to debate that. Michael’s made it really clear that he didn’t want to do it. I don’t blame him. He spent a hell of a lot, a decade of his life, shooting them.

It was a decade of Michael Bay's life from his first Transformers movie coming out in July 2007 to The Last Knight premiering in 2017 -- and that's not counting all of the development and pre-production time. So it was actually a lot more than 10 years of Bay's time, and it would make sense if he's ready to move on, per what he told /FILM.

Just to drive the point home, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura was asked if the next Transformers script they are developing picks up where The Last Knight left off. Here's his one-word reply:

No.

No. The Transformers franchise is changing in the wake of the disappointment of Transformers: The Last Knight and the positive response to the Bumblebee spinoff. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura recently said they're aiming for the next Transformers movie to be like a tonal fusion of Bumblebee and the Michael Bay movies. He said they want to have "a little more Bayhem" but also mix it with the strong character dynamics of Bumblebee.

But apparently they want the Bayhem action without Michael Bay -- or, rather, Michael Bay doesn't want to come back to provide the Bayhem. (I wouldn't be shocked if he did return several years from now for a big Transformers comeback. That's my prediction, locking it in for 2027.)

During New York Toy Fair 2019 a couple of months ago, the Bumblebee movie was officially declared "a new storytelling universe" for the Transformers franchise.

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura isn't a fan of the word "reboot" but he did previously say they would do another big Transformers movie and it would be "different than the ones that we've done before."

Transformers: The Last Knight made $605.4 million worldwide -- with $475M of that coming from the foreign box office -- off a reported production budget of $217 million, per Box Office Mojo. Bumblebee made $465.8 million worldwide from a $135 million production budget. Both films made roughly the same amount at the domestic box office, interestingly enough.

Bumblebee, which is reportedly getting a sequel, was embraced by critics and fans, with a 93% fresh rating and a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an A- CinemaScore. The Last Knight got a B+ CinemaScore but only a 15% RT rating from critics and also a "rotten" an audience score of 44%.

So it sounds like the Transformers franchise wants to mix the success of Michael Bay's big budget blockbusters with the acclaimed quality and character relationships of Bumblebee. Makes sense. Can they pull it off? We'll see.

Meanwhile, if you're curious what Michael Bay is up to, he directed and produced the upcoming action film Six Underground, starring Ryan Reynolds and written by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Stay tuned for more on that film, too. Keep up with everything we know is headed to the big screen this year with our handy 2019 movie guide.

Brie Larson Doesn't Get Why People Are Surprised By Captain Marvel's $1 Billion Success

Brie Larson Doesn't Get Why People Are Surprised By Captain Marvel's $1 Billion Success

As Marvel’s first female-led superhero movie, some might have believed that Captain Marvel had a great deal of pressure on it to perform. Well, perform it did because Captain Marvel recently passed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, becoming just the 7th MCU movie (38th movie overall) to achieve that incredible feat. Entering the three-comma club is quite the achievement, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise according to the film’s star Brie Larson, who said:

I’m very grateful to have broken this glass ceiling of normalizing the concept that women can also make a billion dollars. I don’t know why that was so hard to comprehend in the first place. It’s just like we’re human, whatever. If people needed this to be another reminder this decade [that minority groups can open movies and make a billion dollars] then great, I’m here, I did it.

Brie Larson is thankful to have had her film become such a massive global success, but she doesn’t see what she did as anything groundbreaking or anything that should be viewed as a surprise. In her mind there was never any reason to think that a film led by a woman couldn’t be successful and hit the billion-dollar mark. To her, Captain Marvel is just the latest proof of that.

What Brie Larson is touching on here in her discussion with Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones and the Women in the World summit, is the narrative that female-led blockbusters can’t be successful. This is an antiquated notion that has perpetuated over the years, and although it has long since been disproven, every female-led movie seemingly has the pressure to prove it again and succeed not just for itself, but for all those female-led movies that hope to come after.

The Carol Danvers actress rejects this notion, and sees Captain Marvel as just the most recent movie to show that movies don’t have to fit in the traditional mold to succeed. Any good human story can find success with audiences. She seems to hope that while Captain Marvel isn’t the first female-led movie to find success, it will hopefully normalize the concept and put the matter to bed.

Brie Larson is certainly right that Captain Marvel’s success should not have come as a surprise because it was female-led. In recent years we have seen female-led films like Lucy, The Hunger Games, Frozen and Wonder Woman all become massive hits. Some may not have reached quite the level that Captain Marvel did, but Brie Larson’s heroine is far from the first to bring in the big bucks.

If anything the only surprise with Captain Marvel was the degree to which it succeeded. As an MCU film is was bound to make money, but for the new-to-the-universe character to be in the $1+ billion company of the team-up films, surpassing every other solo film sans Black Panther and Iron Man 3, is quite the feat.

You can next see Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel in another film that will undoubtedly be in the three-comma club, Avengers: Endgame, which arrives in two short weeks on April 26. To keep track of all this year’s biggest movies, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.

Spider-Man: Far From Home's Stars Are Confused About That Endgame 'Plot Hole'

Spider-Man: Far From Home's Stars Are Confused About That Endgame 'Plot Hole'

SPOILERS from Avengers: Endgame ahead.

There should be a class at Peter Parker's high school covering Spider-Man: Far From Home's connections to Avengers: Endgame. There are things I get, but also a few questions and plot conveniences I suspect we're supposed to just accept since (deep breath) none of this is real.

Now that Avengers: Endgame is in theaters explaining how Peter Parker even could get a sequel to Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home is ready for its debut. That leaves the Spider-Man cast to answer any lingering spoilery questions, and they are not up to the task.

Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, and Jacob Batalon were all on Jimmy Kimmel Live when Kimmel asked about the five-year time jump in Avengers: Endgame. If five years have passed for everyone, why are Peter, Ned, MJ, and others still in high school? The cast members looked at each other and laughed.

Tom Holland: Why … why are we still in high school? [laughs]

Jacob Batalon: I mean, it might be one of the biggest plot holes of all time.

Cobie Smulders: I don’t want to pull that thread. I don’t know.

It doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd avoid talking about for fear of spoilers, since the question itself comes from knowledge of Avengers: Endgame. They may just not understand. Did the time jump idea just not come up during Far From Home filming?!

Avengers: Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely did address this "plot hole" with CinemaBlend. He said any of the teens who look the same age would've been part of the 50% that turned to dust during The Decimation of Avengers: Infinity War. When they returned in Endgame, five years hadn't passed for them. To McFeely, it makes perfect sense:

That one seems easy to me. Isn't it clear that anybody who looks the same blipped, and they're back just like [Peter] is? I don't know what happens in [Spider-Man: Far From Home] at all, but I can only assume that most of the main characters got blipped, and maybe some ancillary characters are now older, and then you'll get some comedy from that? I don't know.

As he emphasized, he doesn't know what happens in Spider-Man: Far From Home. That wasn't part of his job to explain. The first Far From Home trailer showed several characters from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Not only do we have Peter and Ned and MJ, there's also Tony Revolori back as Peter's bully Flash Thompson, and Angourie Rice as Betty Brant.

So they were all part of the 50% snapped, and now they're back and returning to high school? Are their classmates all people who used to be five years younger than them? Are their former classmates now in college? Will that angle be explored at all, or not part of the overall story?

Spider-Man: Far From Home is set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, but still shows Peter Parker in mourning for Tony Stark. The story also shows Peter going to Europe on a school trip with his classmates. Nick Fury tasks him with a mission, and he meets up with Quentin Beck/Mysterio. So far, it sounds like a lot of the mystery will be about Mysterio and the Elementals, and not so much dusted high school kids coming to grips with the fact that half of their classmates lived without them for five years. (Save those storylines for The Leftovers and Manifest, I suppose.)

Spider-Man: Far From Home opens in theaters on July 2, as one of the many movies worth keeping an eye on with our handy 2019 movie schedule.

Jumanji 3 Wraps Filming In Atlanta, The Rock Previews New Desert And Mountain Locations Ahead

Jumanji 3 Wraps Filming In Atlanta, The Rock Previews New Desert And Mountain Locations Ahead

Jumanji 3 is coming out this Christmas, which feels like a fast-turnaround -- but the team is filming fast, so apparently it'll all work out. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been updating fans from set each week, and today he revealed that they were actually finished production on the Atlanta set. That doesn't mean they're done filming by a long shot. But he previewed some of the new locations ahead -- including "icy snow capped mountains" and "blistering desert dunes" in addition to the jungles we're familiar with from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Check out Dwayne Johnson's latest Instagram post, which also seemed to show off one of his character's new looks for Jumanji 3:

Everyone is heading to the desert for their action movies this year. Interesting trend.

Just a couple of weeks ago, The Rock (Dr. Smolder Bravestone) posted another photo from set, this one with Karen Gillan (Ruby Roundhouse). They were both dressed in warm-weather gear -- very different costumes from Welcome to the Jungle -- possibly teasing a scene from the snow-capped mountain section of their Jumanji 3 game.

Jumanji 3 is bringing back pretty much everyone from Jumanji 2, Welcome to the Jungle. Jack Black (Professor Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon) added that Karen Gillan's Ruby Roundhouse kicks ass in the new movie and has a more evolved role with more to do.

The whole band is back together in Jumanji 3 -- including Kevin Hart as avatar Franklin Finbar, Nick Jonas as Jefferson "Seaplane," and the four young actors who played the high school players. Plus, Rhys Darby will be back as Nigel the in-game guide. New additions include Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Awkwafina, and Dania Ramirez. We don't know what they'll be doing yet, but there's a good chance they're either players or avatars in the next level of the game.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a massive hit after its December 2017 debut, holding its own against Star Wars: The Last Jedi with a worldwide gross of $962,126,927. That near billion was off a reported production budget of around $90 million, per Box Office Mojo. Jumanji 3 -- which has yet to reveal its official title -- is aiming for lightning to strike again this year. It's opening December 13, just a week before Star Wars: Episode IX. Will that gamble pay off? We'll see.

Jumanji 3 still has a lot of filming left to do in some "wild" hot and cold locations. The Rock and company will probably continue sharing updates along the way, crossing their fingers that fans love this movie as much as both the Robin Williams movie and Welcome to the Jungle. Keep up with all of the upcoming movie release dates with our guide to 2019.

First Look At Kristen Stewart And The New Charlie's Angels Cast On Set

First Look At Kristen Stewart And The New Charlie's Angels Cast On Set

From Farrah Fawcett to Cheryl Ladd to the trio of Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz, a host of famous actresses have played Charlie’s Angels over the years and later in 2019, three new names join their ranks. Naomi Scott, Kristen Stewart and Ella Balinska star as the titular Angels in Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels reboot and we now have our first look at the new Angels cast on set. Check it out:

The more I see images like this the more I’m convinced that spy movies are really the best possible type of movie to work on because of all the beautiful, historic and exotic places around the world you get to film in. Here we see the three new Angels, Naomi Scott’s Elena Houghlin, Kristen Stewart’s Sabina Wilson and Ella Balinska’s Jane Kano, alongside director Elizabeth Banks, who also plays Bosley in the film.

These three are dressed to impress and are standing outside the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul. The architectural marvel is exactly the kind of locale you would expect to see in a movie like this and whether they actually filmed inside it or not, it definitely evokes some Dan Brown-esque intrigue.

The next image shows Kristen Stewart’s Sabina dressing up and doing some classic Charlie’s Angels infiltration work. Take a look:

In Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, we saw the Angels in a motocross race. In the new reboot, Kristen Stewart’s character will be entering the sport of kings. The Angels’ skills are many and although the other jockeys look suspicious of her, she probably has a mission far more important than winning a race.

This next image shows future Jasmine, Naomi Scott’s character disguised as a photojournalist.

Given the fancy hat, Elena may also be at the racetrack to investigate something or witness something that is expected to happen there. Whatever it is, it may not go down as planned based on this next photo.

Here the Angels are all together and spying on someone or something. Given Kristen Stewart’s gloves in this image and Naomi Scott’s green outfit, I would guess this may follow the jockey scene in the film. If that’s the case, something is clearly going down.

Fortunately, whatever happens, the Angels should be well equipped to deal with it.

This is a cool image that shows Elizabeth Banks and Kristen Stewart on some sort of Charlie’s Angels headquarters set. Like all good spys and superheroes, the characters in Charlie’s Angels have a bunch of great tech and gadgets at their disposal. A drone, knives, watches, jewelry, nail polish and are those Altoids tins? If so I’m guessing they do a lot more than just freshen breath.

In addition to the actresses playing the three Angels, Charlie’s Angels also boasts a cast that includes Djimon Hounsou, Sam Clafin, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Tucker and Noah Centineo, the latter of whom can be seen in a new photo below.

Noah Centineo broke out on Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and is in talks to play He-Man in Masters of the Universe. His Langston is expected to be one of the Angels’ love interests in Charlie’s Angels and based on this image, that Angel may be Ella Balinska’s Jane.

Although we’ve heard that this reboot will be more grounded than the previous films, these images give off a brightly-colored vibe that indicates that Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels will still be a fun, comedic spy movie versus something darker and more serious. Now that we’ve finally seen some images from the set of the film, hopefully a look at these new Angels in action as part of a trailer isn’t too far behind.

Charlie’s Angels will see the Townsend Agency as an international organization, with Angels and Bosleys all around the world. When a whistleblower reveals dangerous technology, the Angels are called in to deal with it.

Charlie’s Angels hits theaters on November 15. You can see everything headed your way this year in our 2019 Release Schedule.

X-Men's Dark Phoenix Just Had To Join The Black Hole Meme Trend

X-Men's Dark Phoenix Just Had To Join The Black Hole Meme Trend

Early this morning, an international group of scientists called The Event Horizon Telescope, using telescopes around the world, released the very first image of a black hole. The fascinating picture immediately inspired countless memes with comparisons to the Eye of Sauron seemingly taking the top spot. Another awe-inspiring celestial power will take center stage in this summer’s Dark Phoenix, and the folks behind the X-Men movie couldn’t help but get in on the black hole meme trend. Take a look:

How ominous. So it’s either the Eye of Sauron looking down upon us with cruelty, malice and the will to dominate, or Jean Grey, corrupted and transformed into the Dark Phoenix, on her way to cleanse the universe extinguishing life as we know it. If this first image of a black hole weren’t such a momentous and historical scientific achievement, it could be downright foreboding!

Jean Grey is indeed getting closer… to our theater screens as a fiery image of a black hole, the very first, dominates computer screens and social media. You have to give it to the X-Men Movies Twitter account too; corporate social media accounts often try a bit too hard to seem relevant with the topics of the day, but pairing the Phoenix Force with a mesmerizing and mysterious celestial object such as a black hole is completely appropriate.

The image of the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy, some 53.49 million light years away, looks like a ring on fire as all the light is sucked in to the center (and into Murph’s bedroom in Interstellar?) and the gases and other material drawn to it around the event horizon give off a blazing glow. That fiery glow definitely fits with the Phoenix Force, and if you didn’t know any better, you might think that this image was that all-powerful cosmic entity.

Beyond the aesthetic similarities, the comparison is apt because both black holes and the Phoenix are incredibly destructive forces; extra-terrestrial, mysterious, inescapable and frightening to behold. Black holes are forces of nature as is the Phoenix, which will make Jean Grey in Dark Phoenix a power unlike any the X-Men have faced before, except of course that one time in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Fortunately this time around, Jean Grey’s Phoenix powers will actually come from space. Although Dark Phoenix definitely doesn’t appear to be hewing particularly close to the beloved and iconic comics arc, it will put all of the attention on the Phoenix story as opposed to The Last Stand where it was only one element of the story. Dark Phoenix will see the mutants going to space and Jean Grey will be changed because of it.

Dark Phoenix arrives in this solar system and presumably ends this iteration of the X-Men on June 7. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of when this and all of this year’s biggest movies are hitting theaters.

Avengers: Endgame Already Passed A Major Box Office Milestone Overseas

Avengers: Endgame Already Passed A Major Box Office Milestone Overseas

After a full year of waiting, Avengers: Endgame is finally in theaters and, to very little surprise, the film is doing extremely well at the box office. Marvel's epic blockbuster was the biggest pre-seller ever in Fandango history, and it's already had the best opening day ever domestically. However, the film opened on Wednesday in China, and it's racing toward an unprecedented $324 million opening weekend.

Avengers: Endgame is the culmination of 11 years of films, and fans around the world are packing into theaters to see how the Avengers resolve the cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War. Domestically, the blockbuster is killing it right now. The film made more than $150 million opening day, including $60 million from Thursday previews.

Endgame is currently projected to make over $300 million when the North American weekend closes -- which is INSANE -- but China's forecast is just as high. Marvel's big finale opened in China two days earlier than the domestic premiere, so it had a bit of a head start going into the weekend.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Endgame cruised at record speed to finish Friday in the range of $210 million to $220 million. On opening night, the film earned $107.2 million, smashing China's all-time single-day record. The previous title holder was a Chinese blockbuster called Monster Hunt 2 at $85 million.

But that's not all. It was originally projected that Endgame would take home around $270 million during it's five-day opening in China. However, now analysts have raised the bar and believe that the film could bow to $324 million, spurred by terrific word of mouth.

To put that into perspective, Endgame has made almost as much money during its opening weekend as the entire runs of the top three movies of the country. The other three films are The Fate of the Furious ($392.8 million), Furious 7 ($390.9 million) and last year's Avengers: Infinity War ($359.5 million).

Endgame is poised to defeat each one of those movies, and the only real question is by how much? Analysts predict that the movie will gross as much as $521 million in China over the course of its full run. This would make Endgame the very first Hollywood movie to gross over half a billion dollars in a single market outside of North America.

Again, that's INSANE.

So, combined with a projected $300 million domestic debut, Endgame could wrap up the weekend with as much as $950 million worldwide. The film is also poised to become the first ever movie to launch with $1 billion.

Well, it looks like everyone in the world is seeing Avengers: Endgame this weekend, so I imagine that you are too! Come back to CinemaBlend after you see the film to check out all the questions we have about the movie. And be sure to report back here tomorrow (Sunday, April 28) to read our full weekend box office rundown.