Paramount and DreamWorks announce official release date

Mar 17, 2009 16:15 GMT  ·  By

The second film in the “Transformers” franchise is scheduled to drop in theaters in June 2009 but, in true Hollywood fashion, the movie studio has already announced the official release date for the third installment. “Transformers 3” will come our way on July 1, 2011, Paramount and DreamWorks have confirmed, as Variety informs.

Undoubtedly, this is big news for fans of the film, since they now know for certain that a third movie is also in the making. As a matter of fact, this announcement is the first official word on “Transformers 3,” which was almost a certainty and subject to much speculation in the blogosphere, no matter how much studio insiders tried to downplay it.

It seems that Paramount announced the release date in a bid to “claim a date before a competitor did,” the aforementioned publication says. The calendar for the summer of 2011 is slowly filling up, so, it is being added, the movie studio had no other choice left than to blow the cover of what was one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets so far, in the sense that many rumors about it circulated, but nothing official was made public.

Because of this rush to get a date, no contracts have yet been signed. What this actually means is that, as of now, it is not yet known whether director Michael Bay will make a return to the franchise, as neither whether stars Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox will. Moreover, no writer for the script of the third film has been hired, the same publication mentions, which leaves fans with nothing but the release date to hang on to.

If this is not enough, then they can always set their eyes on the upcoming “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” set for release in June this year. With the first official trailer already out and plenty of promo stills floating around, the waiting will certainly seem shorter than with absolutely nothing at all. On the same note, there are also Michael Bay’s previous statements to build up the hype, with the director promising all fans that the second take on the “Transformers” saga will be bigger, better and considerably darker than the first installment.