In charge of the many-headed beast that is Paramount and Hasbro’s Writers Room for theTransformersfranchise is Oscar-winning screenwriterAkiva Goldsman(A Beautiful Mind). Since the studio seems happy with the work that’s come out of Goldsman’s think-tank -which could ultimately lead to 12 new moviesbutprobably more like five… or maybe only three - they’ve set him to supervise two more writers rooms for other major movie adaptations based on toy properties. If you’re a fan of eitherG.I. JoeorMicronauts, this may come as either good or bad news.
AsDeadlinereports, this shift of responsibilities means that Goldsman will supervise but not write the nextTransformersinstallment. Paramount is currently in negotiations withIron ManwritersArt MarcumandMatt Holloway, andBlack Hawk Down’sKen Nolanto tackle that script together. The big takeaway here is that Goldsman willnotbe writingTransformers 5, and that decision was apparently solidified by the overseers of Paramount, Hasbro,Michael Bay,Steven Spielbergand producersLorenzo di BonaventuraandDon Murphy.
So what’s interesting here is that, although thevery expensive Writers Room- which mimics similar groupthink tactics used in development of TV shows - managed to generate just a few ideas that were feature-worthy forTransformers, Paramount/Hasbro is trying the same plan of attack with theirG.I. JoeandMicronautsfranchises.
2009’sG.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobraand 2013’sG.I. Joe: Retaliationtook in a total box office haul around $675 million worldwide; certainly successful, but nowhere near the mega numbers that theTransformersfranchise brings in. We haven’t heard much on the plannedG.I. Joe 3yet, so perhaps now that Goldsman is overseeing that project’s writers room, we’ll get some news out of it sooner than later.
As for the less familiar property,Micronauts, their story takes place in the Microverse, in which Commander Arcturus Rann and his robot co-pilot Biotron return home and discover that the murderous dictator Baron Karza has slain the Royal Family. There’s plenty of story to mine as adventures follow the continuing conflicts in the war between Rann and Karza’s allies, so perhaps this writers room will bring a fresh adaptation to the big screen. Or perhaps they’ll just ruin another fond childhood memory.
