One of the most interesting casting rumours to surface in recent months was the notion of Mark Wahlberg being cast in Transformers 4.
The blockbuster will see Michael Bay return to the helm for another instalment in the immensely successful franchise, and it wasn’t long before the rumour surfaced that it was then dismissed by Bay himself.
But it looks like things might now be changing.
Bay took to his blog once more on Halloween (with CBM noticing the post tonight), suggesting that the rumours may well have given him an idea or two:
“I squashed a rumor that was on the internet last week. It was about Mark Walhberg. Mark was rumored to be staring in Transformers 4. We are working on another movie together, not T4. I had such a great time working with Mark on Pain and Gain, and he gave such a great performance – well let’s say that very internet chatter gave me some ideas. We are at the inception of our story process right now on T4. Let’s say some ideas are gaining traction with me and my writer – so I’m here to say thanks internet chatter.
Michael”
We had heard rumours of a possible young female lead for the coming sequel last month, but if Bay does indeed mean that he’s now seriously thinking about casting Wahlberg in the film – for what would hopefully be a leading role – that would be a big change in direction, and definitely a welcome one in my books.
Last month’s casting rumours suggested perhaps a little more of the same – the human leads would be high-school age, which is precisely what we had when we first started out in the series.
If Bay were to join the cast in a leading role, that would change the game in a big way, and would really make for an interesting new approach to the sequel.
There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Bay’s lower-budgeted drama, Pain & Gain, starring Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson in the leads, and seeing Bay re-team with Wahlberg for Transformers 4 would potentially be one hell of an interesting move, and one hell of a reboot to the blockbuster.
For now, the wording of the director’s post is vague enough to not be concrete about anything, but it’s great to see that he’s listening to fans.
Bay is set to direct from a script penned by Ehren Kruger, who worked on both Dark of the Moon and Revenge of the Fallen.
Transformers 4 is set for release on 27th June, 2014, so we still have plenty of time to wait before it arrives on the big screen. Here’s to hoping that we’ll have some more news on the project soon.
