While a writer’s room may be readying another Transformers sequel for Michael Bay to direct in the near future, the filmmaker is attaching himself to a different property altogether for sci-fi project of another sort. The Wrap reports that Bay is attached to helm an adaptation of the upcoming Wesley Chu novel Time Salvager for Paramount Pictures, with Bay’s Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian producing.
The story takes place in a future where the humans have abandoned Earth and colonized the stars, and revolves around a convicted criminal who is identified as someone ideally suited for time-travel missions that could potentially delay humanity’s demise (hmm, sounds familiar). The character is sent into the past in order to recover resources without altering the timeline, but on his final mission he ends up rescuing a scientist doomed to die, thus changing the future and turning them both into fugitives.
There are shades of The Island here, and while that film was Bay’s biggest (only?) box office disappointment, the idea of the filmmaker tackling anything that’s not Transformers is intriguing at this point.
Bay is merely attached to the project, and again Paramount is hoping that he returns for Transformers 5 because with Bay at the helm, those movies make the studio billions of dollars. But if Bay does eventually get around to Time Salvager, it could be a cool—or at least different—direction.
The filmmaker is currently in production on his Benghazi action-drama 13 Hours, which stars John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, and Max Martini.
