NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > PARAMOUNT CONSIDERING REBOOT OF TRANSFORMERS FRANCHISE

PARAMOUNT CONSIDERING REBOOT OF TRANSFORMERS FRANCHISE

June 8 2009

Los Angeles, CA – There’s nothing more sure in Hollywood than a sure thing. With millions of dollars at stake with every production studios and executives make sure to do everything they can to ensure a hit before even beginning a production. Often that means adaptations of work in other mediums, sequels, and something that is
becoming more and more of a trend, remakes. Nervous executives and bankers, eager to preserve their jobs in this treacherous are constantly looking to mine their past in hopes of securing their future.

With successes like the reboots of the ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Star Trek’ series, Paramount has established themselves as one of the biggest purveyors of the new trend. That success has prompted the company to take a fresh look at all their properties and have come with a mildly surprising choice for the remake treatment. Already a remake of a popular television show, the Transformers franchise exploded onto the screen in 2007 and with the sequel, ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ only weeks away from release the studio is looking to reboot the massively popular franchise.

“We have to look at everything we have and see what will work and what won’t. Not all popular movies are necessarily the right kind of material for a remake. Look at a drama for example. We have to look at the long picture when entering into doing this not just the immediate one off picture, but look at establishing a new franchise,” said an insider for Paramount who declined to be named. “There are only a few properties that meet all the criteria that we need to justify re-establishing a franchise but Transformers definitely meets all our needs and is the perfect candidate for the reboot treatment.”

The newest film in the series is expected to be one of the biggest hits of the year. Planning is already underway for a third film in the series and the studio is considering going well beyond that with sequels. The early plans indicate that they are looking to have both the rebooted franchise and the original released in opposing years.

“There is a small risk of confusing the brand. By having two different versions in the market people could start to be overwhelmed by the options and those who don’t choose one side or the other might just abandon the property completely. Having too much content in the stream can cause more problems than not enough sometimes,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “True the reboot treatment is all the rage right now and people seem willing to flock to movies they ordinarily wouldn’t have been interested in seeing previously simply because it is a reboot. Star Trek and Friday the 13th proved that clearly but so far no company has been so bold as to create a competing product for themselves. It may seem easy money on the surface but they could be setting themselves up for trouble.”

One of the titles being bandied about is ‘Transformers: Rebooted’ which would allow the company to exploit the reboot label itself. The new version of the franchise is aiming to make the story ‘darker and more realistic.’

“The first movie was well received by old and new fans but there were some nitpickers, especially on the web, that really took apart certain elements of the movie. Not every studio listens to what people say in forums but that isn’t the case with Paramount. By rebooting hopefully they can please more of the fans and at least reduce the number of negative posts. If they don’t, well they could always reboot the reboot,” continued Temple. “The one advantage that film studios have over virtually every other medium is that no matter what they make people will pay to see it as long as they recognize the name. There was a time when it was possible to destroy a property by making bad movies but as fans have proven time and time again, good or bad they will go. What people are going to see now are reboots and no studio is better prepared to handle that than Paramount.”

The studio is reportedly looking at rebooting the ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ series, as well as a new version of ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ which would be the beginning of a trilogy.

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent

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