After any break-up, there’s often a certain amount of power struggle; who dumped who, who’ll be the first to move on, etc. Ever since the tiny Facebook broken heart appeared on the working relationship between Michael Bay and Megan Fox last night with the news that Fox wouldn’t be reprising her role in “Transformers 3,” the pair have been going through the pattern.
When the news broke yesterday, the initial report was that Bay and Paramount had made the decision not to pick up their option on the actress, but the actress’ publicist released a statement to People magazine, telling them “It was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best.” While this could be put down to the usual “he said/she said,” Hit Fix say that they’ve spoken to “sources close to the production” who confirm the same thing, that Fox was the one who bailed on the film.
Deadline are standing by their original story, however, maintaining that Fox was chucked from the franchise. We’re unlikely to find out whose version is correct, but either way, we’re not sure we care that much. In the meantime, Bay & Paramount are clearly keen to be the first to hook up again — Gemma Arterton was linked with the role last night, along with supermodels Bar Rafaeli, Miranda Kerr and Brooklyn Decker, but a few more names have been added to the list.
By a few names, we of course mean every young woman under the age of 30 that’s ever been set as the desktop background by a thirteen year old; Ain’t It Cool suggest (with tasteful pictures, of course), that Emmanuelle Chriqui (“Entourage”), Jessica Lowndes (“90210”), Zoe Saldana (who more than any of the others seems particularly out of LaBeouf’s, and Bay’s, league), Hayden Panettiere (“Heroes”), Camilla Belle (“Push”), Ashley Greene (which we think is unlikely as she’s just signed on for the final “Twilight” films), Amber Heard (“Pineapple Express”), Vanessa Hudgens (“High School Musical”), country singer Julianne Hough and British supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whitley.
Whichever actress signs on to demean themselves for the pleasure of Mr. Bay, (and we imagine it’ll be someone closer to Hough or Lowndes than to Arterton or Saldana, who have movie careers, and can act), they’ll have to do so fairly soon; filming is a mere six weeks away.
I was talking about this on twitter last night, but unless Megan Fox has something big lined up, Transformers was it for her. None of the movie's she's done outside TF have made over $20m. Jonah Hex is an impending bomb. Red Sonja will probably never be made (not to mention who knows if she's really attached to it). And the rest of her slate (on IMDB anyways) is a compulsive lover's collection of "never heard of it."
I'm actually disappointed in myself for clicking on this.
Didn't Megan's contract include three movies with the studio having the option of choosing whether she would return? If not, why hasn't Shia bailed out yet since it's obvious from his interviews that he's dreading a return to Bayhem filmmaking?
Passion Play could be good – a bunch of eccentrics like Mickey Rourke, Bill Murray and Megan Fox.