Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4, Inside Out) has been tapped to helm a new animated project not for Pixar, but Hasbro and Paramount. Cooley has been brought aboard to direct an animated Transformers prequel about Optimus Prime and Megatron.
What’s happening:
- Toy Story 4’s Josh Cooley has reportedly been hired to direct a Transformers prequel feature.
- Deadline is writing that Hasbro’s eOne Studio and Paramount sought out the Pixar writer/director to helm the project that will explore an origin story of robot leaders Optimus Prime and Megatron.
- Sources say the film will take place on the planet Cybertron—home of the morphing machines.
- Writers, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari have penned the script. Marvel fans may be familiar with their work on Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. The duo are uncredited for Ant-Man but did receive writing credits on the Phase Three sequel.
- This new Transformers film is animated and is not part of the current live-action universe.
- Deadline notes that as studios prepare to restart production, animated features will be easier to make as many aspects of these films can be handled remotely, staying within social distance guidelines.
- Cooley, Barrer, and Ferrari are reportedly working on a final draft of the film now.
- The film is expected to be produced by:
- Lorenzo di Bonaventura
- Mark Vahradian
- Hasbro/eOne