Home Entertainment Bye Bye Lebeouf! Paramount Exec confirms Shia is out of Transformers 4, Ehren Kruger writing the script

Bye Bye Lebeouf! Paramount Exec confirms Shia is out of Transformers 4, Ehren Kruger writing the script

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We’ve been hearing about it for a while now. First it was director Michael Bay that said that he was done with the incognito-robots-go-boom franchise after the third Transformers film, but he was then lured back to helm a fourth entry. I’d like to believe that a fishing rod, a stack of money and an autographed copy of Mein Kampf was involved. (Too soon on the Hitler jokes? Megan Fox will be disappointed).

Soon thereafter, we found out that the Running Man himself, Shia Lebouf would also be calling it quits. Some were hoping, that like Bay, LeBeouf would change his mind, but as Paramount Executive Adam Goodman reveals, that’s not happening.

The Paramount Film Group President was speaking to THR about the studio’s future projects when he gave the first official confirmation that LeBeouf will not be returning. As to why The Beef will no longer be shacking up with super models and running away from stuff again, Goodman offered this:

The story is going in a different direction now. Ehren Kruger [who wrote the past two Transformers movies] is writing it for us, and we’re starting to engage, but I can’t say anything more.

Now this sentence, is the literary equivalent of bashing your funny bone. On the one hand, I’m rather happy that Shia is out, as I’ve always felt that ever since the Transformers films elevated him into super stardom, he has been getting typecast as this manic action hero, and completely ignoring all the acting promise he first showed as a kid. Judging by that amazing trailer for Lawless, he may be finally starting to realize his potential, and I just wouldn’t want him to regress to hanging out with talking cars again

Now for the painful bit of the metaphor: Ehren Kruger. I rather enjoyed the first Transformers film, but the sequels were filled with wall to wall stupid ideas. (Racist sterotype robots? Really?) And as much as I regularly harangue Michael Bay, the fault for those lapses in intelligence lie firmly at the feet of the scriptwriter. Ehren Kruger just simply has no idea about how to rein in excess, whether it be in terms of action, exposition or so-called comedy.

So with him producing the script for this again (and I have a feeling that despite Shia’s departure he is still going to find some way to torture us with the Further Unfunny Adventures of Sam Witwicky’s Parents), I’m looking forward to it about as much as a prostate exam from the Hulk.

Last Updated: April 30, 2012

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