One of the most common arguments against George Lucas as a filmmaker is that at some point the man lost his creative vision and then decided to make stories and characters that could be used to sell toys (a.k.a. Jar Jar Binks). Well, now it looks like soon we'll be able to point a similar finger at Michael Bay given what was recently said by Hasbro President and CEO Brian Goldner at the UBS Best Of Americas 2012 Conference.
During the company showcase, the executive talked about the upcoming Transformers 4 - which Bay will direct once he has completed work on the upcoming dark comedy Pain and Gain - and according to TFW500 (via Coming Soon) the movie will have a greater focus on trying to move action figures based on characters in the movie. Goldner said that while Transformers: Dark of the Moon did well at the box office its toy sales were down because they used the exact same characters from the other two movies. To mend this promblem, the new film "will have a new cast of [robot] characters and it will be a story revolving around these new characters."
In addition to the minor plot detail, Goldner also revealed the first logo for the movie (though expect this to change when they find an official title):
While it's not a huge surprise that Transformers 4 will feature new characters - you have to remember that all of the human characters are all changing as well, as Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley are not expected back for the new movie - it is somewhat refreshing/creepy to hear Goldner be so open about motivations in Hollywood. Are we at the point where kids know they're watching a two hour toy commercial and just don't care?
