Michael Bay’s Transformers films were incredibly divisive with film critics, and each installment in the series has received a “rotten” rating on the popular review aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes. That being said, the franchise is unquestionably a profitable one, as multiple installments have grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. What’s unfortunate is that Bay truly is a talented filmmaker; films like The Rock and Armageddon are legitimate action classics, and he has done some of the best work of career in recent years whenever he takes breaks from mythology of the Autobots and the Decepticons.
Pain & Gain showed he has a surprisingly satirical sense of humor, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi was a straightforward and rousing tribute to American heroism, and Ambulance features some of the most inventive uses of drone photography in modern action filmmaking. Even a disastrous film like Netflix’s 6 Underground featured a level of cinematic aggressiveness that only Bay was capable of; perhaps if he’s given more freedom to tell stories that aren’t set in an ongoing cinematic universe he might end up making another great movie.
Even if Bay’s Transformers films have few defenders, their financial success has led Paramount Pictures to develop an ongoing Transformers cinematic universe that plays off elements that were introduced in the original toys, comic books, and cartoon shows. The franchise does look to be heading in a new direction with projects like Bumblebeeand Rise of the Beasts, which saw filmmakers Travis Knight and Steven Capable Jr. trying their hand at the series. The upcoming Transformers One prequel film is even set to be directed by Josh Cooley, whose directorial debut Toy Story 4 took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Here are some more up-and-coming directors who could make interesting new entries in the Transformers franchise.
Joe Wright
Joe Wright has one of the most interesting careers of any modern filmmaker. He’s clearly a master of elegant period pieces, as his masterpieces Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, and Darkest Hour have shown critical stories of heartbreak, war, and the heroism that those in power are called upon to display when the forces of darkness become too overbearing. He’s often an experimental storyteller; he chose to recreate the timeless story of Cyrano as a musical, and delivered a stylized version of Leo Tolstoy’s 1878 novel Anna Karenina that warded off some of the novel’s more traditionalist fans.
Wright has taken chances on films that aren’t British period pieces, but they each proved to be limited in their potential. Pan simply didn’t have anything new to say about the stories of Peter Pan, Netflix’s The Woman in the Window was based on source material that wasn’t all that strong to begin with, and The Soloist was simply limited in what it could say about the relationships between artists and journalists.
While this doesn’t mean that he’s an obvious choice for a Transformers film, it does seem like the science fiction series is interested in exploring different eras of history in which the Transformers interacted with major “human wars.” Ironically enough, Wright’s Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour was released the same year that both Christopher Nolanchose to explore the climatic battles of World War II in Dunkirk and Bay added in the Autobots’ pact with the Allied Forces in Transformers: The Last Knight.
A Transformers film that took place within a different historical era would be very exciting to see, and Wright may be the filmmaker to do it. While it could be seen as a “step down” from a director who often flirted with acclaim, Wright could use another solid hit under his belt after Cyrano failed to earn any major awards consideration and The Woman in the Window earned him some of the worst reviews of his career.
Andrew Stanton
The Transformers franchise has a very open future in both live-action and animated storytelling; while Bay’s live-action films are certainly the most famous, longtime fans of the franchise would mostly likely cite the original animated series and 1986’s animated feature film The Transformers: The Movie as the definitive version of the characters Optimus Prime, Bumblebee Megatron, and the other beloved characters. A new animated installment in the Transformers franchise would certainly be an exciting way for Paramount Pictures to show that the series is interested in actually delivering on the versions of the characters that they’re familiar with.
Many great animated films from “geek properties” such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The LEGO Batman Movie, Big Hero 6, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars have proven that animation can offer a unique visual dynamic to the franchise that distinguishes them from their predecessors. The confusing visuals of Bay’s Transformers films were largely due to the lackluster CGI effects, which made it hard to distinguish between the different characters, an issue that could be easily solved through a colorful animated film. This seems to be the approach that Paramount Pictures seems to be taking with its highly-anticipated new animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, in what will be the first cinematic Ninja Turtles since the poorly received reboot series that Bay had executive produced.
Regardless if the next chapter of the series is animated or live-action, Andrew Stanton would be an excellent choice to helm a new adaptation. Stanton’s animation work speaks for itself; in addition to serving as a creative lead on several Pixar projects, he directed the films Finding Nemo and Wall-E, which are considered to be two of the greatest animated films of all-time. On the live-action side, Stanton directed the criminally underrated science fiction space opera John Carter and has directed episodes of such visually stunning television shows as Legion, Stranger Things, and Better Call Saul.
Peter Ramsey
Peter Ramsey’s work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has made him an instant fan favorite, as he’s clearly a director who knows how to deliver on fans’ expectations and then some. Spider-Verse featured all great and immersive action that Transformers fans would like to see, but it was also a highly emotional film that might inject some genuinely affecting elements into a series that’s been accused of being “style over substance.” Anyone concerned about Ramsey transitioning to a live-action format just needs to see his work on the third season of The Mandalorian.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
