EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures and Hasbro are getting closer to bringing its autobots back to the big screen are look to be reuniting with some familiar faces to help bring those Transformers back to life. Sources tell Deadline Paramount has appointed Steven Spielberg to focus on all creative aspects of the next live-action Transformers film, alongside long-time producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. but that Michael Bay is in early talks to return as director. Spielberg continues as executive producer and will now lead the creative direction for the eighth live-action installment. He held a similar creative role for the first two Transformers films that launched the franchise, which has generated more than $5.4 billion in global box office revenue, and turned Hasbro’s cherished toy brand into a worldwide phenomenon.

Together, Spielberg and di Bonaventura will guide this new chapter to honor the spirit of the early Transformers films. Mark Vahradian, Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto and Hasbro will also produce.

The film is being developed based on a script by Jason Fuchs. Plot details are under wraps other then the film being set in modern day. As the project is in early development, no cast details are available at this time.

Since the first film opened in the summer of 2007, the franchise has become of the biggest properties on the Paramount lot. Spielberg, Bay and Di Bonaventura playing major roles in that first films success with Spielberg identifying Bay as his choice to direct the first film. While Bay and Di Bonaventura would continue to remain the primary architects at the center of the franchise for the next four installments, Spielberg would be less hands on as exec producer. Bay would ultimately take a break from the franchise after the 2017 pic Transformers: The Last Night and since then the most recent installments, Bumblebee and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, while not complete misses did not live up to the standards the prior installments had delivered on.

So when the Skydance merger was completed, the newly minted Paramount Pictures Co-Chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, made it not only a priority to breathe new life into the frannchise but get Spielberg on board to be more involved in the next films development. One of the first meetings the two had as co-chairs was with Spielberg at the studio following Skydance’s merger with Paramount in August of 2025 to talk about many things including Transformers. The courtship continued over the next year with Spielberg finally agreeing to this new hands on role after reading Fuchs’s latest script.

The next decision was who would direct it with Bay being the first stop to see if he was up to returning to the franchise he helped a launch. Bay had been open to the idea over the years and after reading the script and meeting with Spielberg earlier this week was on board to make his return to the directors chair.

Transformers is one of a handful of properties that is starting to gain momentum as Deadline also recently reported Brad Pitt would be returning to star in a World War Z sequel with Edward Berger directing.

Spielberg is repped by CAA. Bay is repped by Range and CAA. Page Six was first to report news about Bay’s return.

Mark Mortimer, who starred as Nick Hudson on Another World during the 1990s, died of cancer on September 23. He was 59.

Mortimer, who lived in the Greater Chicago area, had most recently worked in the building industry as a founder of Inside Out Construction in Batavia, Illinois. His death was announced by his family.

After launching his career as a model, Mortimer made his TV debut in 1996 when he was cast as Nick Hudson on the NBC soap Another World. He was the third actor in the role (following Justin Chambers and Kevin McClatchy) – a long-lost member of Bay City’s central Hudson family – and appeared in 81 episodes through the series’ finale in 1999.

Diagnosed with cancer in 2024, Mortimer, born in St. Charles, Illinois, on April 15, 1967, and his wife Christie founded the Integrative Access Foundation, designed to give people facing cancer access to integrative therapies that might otherwise be financially out of reach.

“Mark faced the end of his life with the same faith with which he lived it,” his family wrote. “His confidence did not come from believing everything would turn out the way he wanted. It came from knowing where he was going. He believed in Jesus. He believed in the promise of Heaven. And as his earthly life drew to a close, that belief gave him peace.

“Mark’s path took him from serving in the United States Army to modeling, acting, and eventually to entrepreneurship,” his family noted. “He was never afraid to reinvent himself or pursue a new idea.”

In addition to his wife Christie, he is survived by daughter Hunter and other extended family.