Opening January 18 is director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Russell Crowe plays the morally ambiguous politician.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  For more on the film, here’s the first clip and the brand new trailer.

Over the weekend I sat down with Wahlberg for a fun interview.  We talked about how he got involved in Broken City, putting together the great cast, the way he produces, and upcoming projects like Pain & Gain, Ted 2, and Transformers 4.  However, while it was great to talk about his film projects, the best part was hearing him talk about the New England Patriots and getting to attend the game last week with his son.  While I thought about editing out his comments on the Patriots after the disappointing loss last night, I thought some of you might like to see it.  Hit the jump to watch.

Earlier today, the website Unleash the Fanboy unleashed what they claimed to be an exclusive description of the plot for Transformers 4, and said the villain would be Unicron.  I didn’t bother to read the whole description since I had a feeling that the scoop was bogus, and now Michael Bay has released a statement confirming my suspicion.

Hit the jump for a statement from Bay regarding the current status of the script.  Transformers 4 stars Mark Wahlberg and possibly co-stars Nicola Peltz and Brenton Thwaites.  The film is due out June 27, 2014.

Mark Wahlberg is quite a busy guy, and his schedule doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.  The actor hit the comedy jackpot this summer in Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s feature directorial debut Ted, which already has a sequel in the works, and he’s also poised to delve into franchise fare as the lead in Michael Bay’s upcoming Transformers 4.  Steve recently got to interview Wahlberg in anticipation of the upcoming political thriller Broken City, and the actor gave updates on Transformers 4 and a sequel to Ted, and talked briefly about Bay’s small-scale black comedy Pain and Gain.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Mark Wahlberg was recently confirmed as the lead in Transformers 4.  We first heard Wahlberg was in talks from Twitch, so now that the site has a new Transformers 4 casting update, we’re ready to listen.  Twitch hears that Michael Bay has cast Nicola Peltz (The Last Airbender) as Wahlberg’s daughter and Brenton Thwaites as Peltz’s biker boyfriend.  Both Peltz and Thwaites were on the shortlist that was reported a few weeks ago.

We don’t have many concrete details on the plot—just these character descriptions and the hints that Transformers 4 will be set in China four years after the events of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  If this casting pans out, then Ehren Krueger (writer on the last two Transformers movies) should have everything he needs to lock in the script, at which point you won’t be able to escape Transformers updates.  The still-untitled Transformers sequel is scheduled for release on June 27, 2014.

When Michael Bay’s robot explosions return in Transformers 4, we could be seeing a markedly different type of setting being blown to bits.  Paramount is apparently hoping to set Bay’s Mark Wahlberg-fronted Transformers sequel in mainland China.  The reasoning is less a creative choice and more about box office: the studio hopes that by filming in China and possibly partnering with a local production company, the chances of Transformers 4 getting a wide release in China (and thus bringing in more money) will be greater.  Hit the jump for more.

In a perfect storm of movie casting for ambitious young acting talent, some major movies that could make (or break) the next rising star are all in a simultaneous casting process. Here’s a look at the latest developments:

• Michael Bay is set to start screen testing actors for leads in Transformers 4, which centers on Mark Wahlberg’s character, his daughter and her boyfriend, a race car driver.
• Divergent, which carries heavy Hunger Games or Twilight-sized franchise hopes, is narrowing its scope for the male lead opposite Shailene Woodley.
• DreamWorks’ Need for Speed adaptation is looking for other racers to fill in the cast alongside leads Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots and possibly Dominic Cooper.

Hit the jump for much more on each picture.

Back in September, we reported that Transformers 4 would follow the events of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  However, we weren’t sure how it would follow the third movie other than how director Michael Bay left the world after the events in Chicago.  Today, Bay has shed a bit more light on how the plot of Transformers 4 will relate to the previous films.  Speaking to TMZ, Bay says that the new movie will take place four years after the events of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Hit the jump for more, and click here for our previous report regarding the casting of Mark Wahlberg as the film’s lead.  Transformers 4 is due out June 27, 2014

So after the back-and-forth of whether or not Mark Wahlberg would be involved in Michael Bay’s Transformers 4, it looks as if it’s finally been confirmed.  Previously, we reported that Bay was in talks with Wahlberg to star in Transformers 4, but Bay took to his blog to squash that rumor, saying that the Pain and Gain duo were in talks for another picture.  With the internet all abuzz over the possibilities, Bay said that the chatter caused him to dream up a part for the star.  Now it looks like it’s going to happen as Bay confirmed Wahlberg’s been cast as the lead on his blog today.

Hit the jump to read the full press release and check out the new logo for Transformers 4.

A couple of weeks ago, a rumor surfaced that director Michael Bay was considering Mark Wahlberg for a role in his upcoming sequel Transformers 4.  The casting made sense, as Bay recently wrapped a small-budget dark comedy with Wahlberg called Pain and Gain and the purported plot of Transformers 4 involves an adult character.  Bay quickly took to his website to squash the rumor, explaining that he’s talking with Wahlberg about doing a different project that’s not Transformers 4.

Well, it appears that Bay has had a change of heart.  The director recently took to his website again to note that all the internet chatter actually got him thinking about a part for Wahlberg in T4.

An interesting casting rumor is floating around concerning Michael Bay’s upcoming sequel Transformers 4.  We know that the follow-up won’t feature any of the human characters from Bay’s first three films, but the director has insisted that the film will not be a reboot.  He recently revealed that the sequel will pick up after the annihilation events of Chicago from Dark of the Moon, but it’s assumed that the story will pit the titular robots opposite some fresh faces.  Now reports suggest that Bay may be roping in none other than Mark Wahlberg to spice things up.  Hit the jump for more.

Hugo Weaving is fascinating, as both an actor and a human being.  Whether it’s in memorable roles in bigger features (i.e. The Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta and The Lord of the Rings trilogy), in smaller character studies or on the stage, he definitely makes an impression.  While at the press day for the filmmaking masterpiece Cloud Atlas, where he plays six characters over races, genders and periods of time, Collider was fortunate enough to get to speak to him about his work during an exclusive interview.

While we will run what he had to say about the epic experience of making Cloud Atlas closer to the film’s October 26^th theatrical release, we did want to share what he had to say about three other films he’s been involved with – The Hobbit, Transformers and Captain America.  During the interview, Weaving said that he only found out that The Hobbit movies would be a trilogy quite recently, that not only has he not been called to voice Megatron for another Transformers movie, but that he’s never actually even met Michael Bay, and that even though he signed a multi-picture contract with Marvel, he doesn’t see Red Skull returning.  Check out what he had to say after the jump. 

Michael Bay turned quite a few heads when, after previously saying that Transformers: Dark of the Moon would be his last film in the robot explosion franchise, he decided to come back and direct the series “reboot” Transformers 4.  Much was made about his intentions, and it was suggested that Bay agreed to direct Transformers 4 on the condition that Paramount finance his $25 million black comedy Pain and Gain starring Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg.

Pain and Gain is now in the can and poised for release in April, and Bay recently talked quite openly about why he made the decision to come back and direct Transformers 4 and revealed a bit about what to expect from the sequel.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

We previously learned that none of the original cast of the Transformers series will return for Transformers 4, and the sequel will feature “some redesign of the robots.”  However, Michael Bay and Co. may be taking those ideas further than you thought.  Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner talked a bit about Transformers 4 at the UBS Best Of Americas 2012 Conference* and unveiled the placeholder logo seen above.  According to TFW2005 [via Bleeding Cool], Goldner lamented the stagnant toy sales around the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, presumably because audiences had already spent two whole movies with these played-out giant robot characters.  Hence, Transformers 4 will reportedly tell a new story about a new group of robots so Hasbro can reinvent the brand with a new (and thus much hipper) toy line.  There are good narrative reasons to change up the roster, but it’s hard to stay positive when the primary source of the movie’s news is a toy company CEO.

Hit the jump for Bay’s pitch for Transformers 4.

With production wrapped on Michael Bay’s $20 million passion project, the dark comedy Pain and Gain, the director is now turning more of his attention to his fourth—and “final”—film in the Transformers franchise.  We know that Transformers 4 won’t feature any of the human cast from the previous three films, there will be redesigns for some of the robots, it’s set for release in the summer of 2014, and it’s been described as a reboot of sorts.  Now that he’s moved on to the post-production phase of Pain and Gain, Bay recently talked a bit about where Transformers 4 will go storywise and asserted that the film is not a reboot.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Details on Michael Bay‘s Transformers 4 have been scarce.  We know that it will be a reboot of the series, none of the original cast will return, Transformers 2 and 3 writer Ehren Kruger is penning the script, and the robots might be front-and-center as opposed to a human character.  Today, the 24 Frames adds a new piece of info to the pile by reporting “the fourth film will include some redesign of the robots.”  24 Frames also confirms that the new movie will have an entirely new cast.

Furthermore, Michael Bay says Transformers 4 will be his last entry in the franchise even though that’s what he said when it came to Transformers 3.  His goal with Transformers 4 is to set up the series “for the next guy.”  So rather than letting a new director completely spin a new Transformers tale, Bay will make sure that future directors will still have to hold to his template.  Classy.  Transformers 4 is due out June 29, 2014.