DreamworksUPDATE: On his site's message boards, director Michael Bay says we'll have to wait a little longer. "Paramount made a mistake in dating Transformers 3—they asked me on the phone—I said yes to July 4—but for 2012—whoops! Not 2011!!!"
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The Transformers team has staked out their proverbial spot on the sand for summer 2011.
Wanting to secure a plum release date, Paramount and DreamWorks has confirmed that Transformers 3 will unspool Friday, July 1, 2011—if there is, in fact, a third film in the CGI-aided action-adventure franchise.
Studio insiders told Variety that they wanted to get their hands on the long holiday weekend before another summer tentpole claimed it as its own. However, there is no script yet, nor has a writer been hired.
A good predictor of the necessity of such a hiring will be the performance of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the sequel to 2007's blockbuster Transformers, which arrives in theaters June 24.
The first film, starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel, grossed $319 million in the U.S.
(Originally published March 16, 2009 at 3:55 p.m. PT.)