Wrecked Magazine have reported a new sponsorship deal between the Hasbro and Paramount and Otto Graven's “Ultimate 86” Formula D team which will see Hasbro become co-title sponsors. The original casting call for Transformers 4 announced that the studio were looking for a "male who will play her (the lead female character) on screen boyfriend who is a Texas race car driver in his early 20s". This character has been confirmed as being played by Jack Reynor with Mark Wahlberg playing the father of the female.  Therefore, it can be deduced that he is likely to be driving for the "Ultimate 86" Formula D team.

"In a huge deal, Otto Graven has announced a co-title sponsorship of his “Ultimate 86” as being split between longtime Scion partner Rogue Status and Hasbro’s “Transformers” brand. This is a great new brand coming to Formula D, one that I’m sure many fans have grown up admiring. Rogue Status is upping their sponsorship from a partner level to a co-title sponsorship as well. For a driver who wasn’t in the series last season, this is a HUGE announcement coming through in a season where many drivers are struggling to find sponsorship dollars. Will this help Otto earn his first FD Podium in 2013?"

Reel Chicago have officially confirmed that Chicago has been choosen as another location for the fourth live-action Transformers movie. Transformers 4 will be the third of three sci-fi movies filming within the city this year, with the other two being Divergent and Jupiter Ascending. It has also been reported that actor Mark Wahlberg is currently looking to rent a property within the area for a four month period over the summer.

Credit to Seibertron.com for the news

Incase anyone was still doubting it, live-action Transformers director Michael Bay has once again confirmed to Forbes that Transformers 4 will not be a reboot.

Will that change the way you do anything on Transformers 4?
We’re going to start off smaller. There’s a brand new cast. To freshen the franchise we’ve redesigned everything from top to bottom. The history of the first three movies is still there, we start four years later and there’s a reason why we’re meeting a new cast.
Mark is really excited about it and it’s a great redesign. I said that 3 [which grossed $1.1 billion] was going to be my last one. Paramount was letting me do Pain & Gain and the Transformers ride was opening at Universal and it was bittersweet to think of passing it off. I wanted to set it up on a really sure footing and to bring someone else in on that, it would have been overwhelming.

So is 4 a reboot?
No, that’s wrong. We keep the Transformers the way they were, it’s just four years later. There’s a reason the Transformers are redesigned. We’re trying to broaden the franchise and give it more places to go.

Mr. Bay also confirms what the winner of Doritos Superbowl Commercial Contest will do at the set of TF4:

What will the winner actually get to do on the Transformers 4 set?
Replace me as director. No, we’ll see who the person is and depending on what he is interested in being, a producer or a director, we’ll try to tailor the job. It’s all hard work with you’re working on a movie.

Visit Forbes for the full article.

The Hong Kong Toy fair has now finished and whilst Hasbro were reportedly not at the event, there were some Transformers licensed products on display.  One of these products were licensed replica polyresin (ABS) statues of Transformers Movie Optimus Prime and Bumblebee along with a prop-replica of the Allspark from FMC. Atamaii TV Blog were in attendance with their reporter Stu Carter recording a video introduction by FMC representative Mike.

The statues are Asian exclusives, are articulated and come with interchangable accessories.  Mike explains in the video that the Bumblebee figure is to scale with the Optimus Prime statue which is why he is smaller with Prime standing at 20" tall and Bumblebee who is 14" tall.

The figures are on the expensive side with Optimus Prime retailing at $1,699 (that is USD not HKD) with Bumblebee being $1,399.

The Allspark cube is made to scale for the film and costs $299.

The first run of both the Optimus Prime and the Bumblebee statues have now sold out within Asia with FMC looking to produce a second run.  You can view a video below.

Third Party upgrade provider "Fans Want It" have unveiled their latest offering as the FWI-3 Jet Power Upgrade Kit. The kit is a add-on for the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Optimus Prime figure.  ROTF Prime will be able to use the armour to make him look like he is combined with Jetfire.

No word has been given on the price of the kit or an expected release date, however due to a peg being located on the back of the upgrade, it does appear as if Prime will be able to tow the parts along, meaning there is some "transformation" in the kit.

The official website of Michael Bay has updated his website with a new statement from the Hollywood movie director confirming that he has signed Jack Reynor to star along side Mark Wahlberg in the fourth live-action Transformers movie which is due to start production this year.  In the same statement Mr Bay throws in a comment that this film will be the first of a new trilogy of films.  You can read the full statement below.

"I just hired a great new actor for Transformers 4 to star against Mark Wahlberg. Jack Reynor, he is an Irish kid that came to America with 30 bucks in his pocket. Pretty ballsy. Seriously who does that? Anyway I spotted him in a great little Irish movie WHAT RICHARD DID. This kid is the real deal.

Transformers 4, is not a reboot. That word has been floating around on the net.

This movie takes place exactly 4 years after the war in Chicago. The story makes a very natural transition, and reason as to why we have a whole new cast. This Transformers will feel very different than the last three. We are embarking on a new trilogy.

Michael"

Twitch are reporting that Brenton Thwaites and Nicola Peltz have joined the Mark Wahlberg as members of the cast for Transformers 4. Nicola Peltz will play "Marky Marks" daughter in the film whilst Brenton Thwaites will play her boyfriend.

The 23 year old Australian born Brenton Thwaites, is best known for portraying Luke Gallagher in the Fox8 teendrama series SLiDE as well as the Home and Away character Stu Henderson, whilst 17 year old Nicola Peltz is best known for her role as Katara in the The Last Airbender.

Update: In an update on ShootForTheEdit.com, Michael Bay's site admin posted that the story reported by Twitch is false. However, Twitch were the first site to report Mark Wahlberg joining the franchise and S4tE have been wrong in the past. So for now, this story should be treated as a  40/60 chance of being true

It's been confirmed that Mark Wahlberg will be taking over the lead role in the Transformers franchise.  Below you will find the official release of the news

HOLLYWOOD, CA (November 8, 2012) – After an exceptionally successful collaboration on the upcoming “Pain and Gain,” Michael Bay has cast Academy Award®-nominee Mark Wahlberg in the highly anticipated “TRANSFORMERS 4.” The film will hit theaters June 27th, 2014.

“Mark is awesome. We had a blast working on “Pain and Gain” and I’m so fired up to be back working with him. An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy,” said Bay.
Bay will direct the next installment in the “TRANSFORMERS” series, which begins shooting next spring. From Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., in association with Hasbro, the film will be produced by Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian.

Bay’s first “TRANSFORMERS” film was a box office sensation in 2007, opening at #1 and earning more than $700 million worldwide. His second installment “TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN” in 2009 grossed more than $830 million worldwide. In 2011, “TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON” was an even bigger hit worldwide, grossing more than a billion dollars to become the 5th highest grossing film of all time. To date, the franchise has earned more than $2.6 billion worldwide.

No word as yet on who his female companion will be though

MTV Geek are reporting rumour that having recently bought LucasFilm to add to their portfolio including Marvel and Pixar, that Disney are in talks to aquire Hasbro Inc.  MTV Geek claim to have been told that "these are still just discussions at this point, but serious enough that something could be announced at any time and create ripples throughout the entertainment industry. The Lucasfilm acquisition has been reported as taking as few as 6 months to complete. On the other hand, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger has until 2015 on his current contract, and he waited about 3 years in between the acquisitions of Marvel and Lucasfilm, so we may be without firm news on this for some time."

If this rumour does turn out to be true it's affects will be far reaching indeed as it is likely to signal the end of both The Hub (A Hasbro - Discovery joint venture) as well as the relationship between Hasbro and Paramount for the live-action franchise for both Transformers and G.I-Joe, when the current agreements expire.  Remember, Paramount had the Iron Man rights originally.

SlashFilm has joined in on the discussion and agrees with us regarding this pointing out that "If the deal follows the LucasFilm model, those rights [the live action movies for Transformers and G.I. Joe] would likely stay with that company, at least until some kind of contract runs out.".  The also make mention to the fact that Universal had controlling rights to a collection of Hasbro Inc properties including Clue (Cludeo), Ouija, Stretch Armstrong and Battleship, but famously dropped most of them and only released Battleship.  Wirth Disney owning their own studios, this would no longer be an issue for Hasbro, Disney could just churn out movies of all of their IPs at will.

Hasbro Inc stock has also seen a recent rise.

Stay tuned as there is likely to be much more on this story over the coming days, weeks and months

Paramount Pictures have begun casting for the new lead roles in Transformers 4 which is currently being referrered to simply as the "Untitiled Transformers Sequel" by studio representatives.  Filming for Transformers 4 will begin in April / May 2013 with an aim for a June 27th 2014 release. The casting call being published over on acting-auditions.org.

The casting call asks for a lead female role (18 or over) who can play "high-school senior age" as well as a male who will play her on screen boyfriend who is a Texas race car driver in his early 20s.

The screen play is once again by Ehren Kruger (Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon).

For those of you still looking for some Transformers: Dark of the Moon figures you may be pleased to hear that the UK high street retailer, The Entertainer, is currently stocking the deluxe class figures for the reduced price of £6.50 including Darksteel, the recolour of DOTM Sideswipe.

Our thanks go out to Duckstar for letting us know via Twitter and for sending through the following image.

Paramount Pictures granted a license to developers who plan to create a theme park in north Kent here in England which, at £2bn, is aimed to rival Disneyland Paris.  The Paramount Pictures themed park could include a copy of Transformers: The Ride, if it goes ahead - Read more on the BBC.

Glen Moreshower has been quoted talking about nto only Transformers 4 but also Transformers 5.  This follows on Michael Bays' comments about handing over the reigns after Transformers 4, using that to set up a new story arc.

Last weekend at the Con X KC in Kansas City, Missouri, actor Glenn Morshower, who has appeared in all three films so far, talked about the continuation of the series. According to Morshower, who provides an introduction to the brand new "Transformers 3D" ride at Universal Studions, Bay and producer Steven Spielberg are not only working on 'Transformers 4', but more than likely 'Transformers 5' as well.
"After I did the opening ceremonies for the ride, Steven Spielberg walked up to me and chatted and said 'You know we've got you set to do the fourth one and probably the fifth one on the heels of that," said on how he was approached about the new sequels. "So, I guess in December we are on our way to making 4 and 5."

Source: Examiner.com

Huffington Post have recently held an interview with Transformers Director Michael Bay regarding why he choose to return to the franchise, whether Peter Cullen would remain the voie of Optimus Prime and whether the 4th live action movie would ignore the previous 3 and indeed be a reboot or whether it would continue within the same universe.  Below you will find an extract from the interview, which you can find in full here.

Why do you want to do it? I was under the impression that you were done after "Transformers 3"?
I thought I was done. Then the ride came out [at Universal Studios Hollywood] and the two-and-a-half-hour lines. And then you're thinking, Oh my God, someone's going to take this over. And you start doing a lot of soul-searching. Like, OK, I'm about to do a little movie, "Pain & Gain" ... and the studio says they want to restart the franchise. And someone could come in here and screw it up, you know? So I'm thinking that if I do this last one, we set it on a new footing, we change a lot of things -- but we keep the history of the three in place. But we broaden it so it can be set up and be carried on -- it would have a better chance for survival, I guess. You know?

So with the plot of "Transformers 4," it's not like the other three movies didn't happen? It's not a reboot?
No. We're basically taking from the history of where it was -- or where we left it in Chicago. And we're going to carry it on from there.

I spoke to Peter Cullen at Comic Con earlier this year. He said he doesn't know if he's going to be back as the voice of Optimus Prime or not. He'll be back, right?
Of course! Of course.

Thanks to Transformers Asia, we have our first complete look at APS-01 Striker Optimus Prime. It shows off his accessories and premium-level paint job, chrome, teases at the inclusion of a bonus weapon, and provides as 30th September release date