Marco Ramirez, the showrunner of Netflix’s Marvel show The Defenders, is set to write the script while Angel Manuel Soto, who directed last year’s teen drama Charm City Kings, is attached to direct.
Logline details are being kept deep in the circuits of Cybertron, but it is known that the project is being developed apart from the universe of the main line of Transformers films that Paramount has been making since 2007. The studio, along with eOne, is now in active duty on a seventh Transformers project, being directed by Creed II helmer Stephen Caple Jr. The line includes five Michael Bay-directed movies plus the Bumblebee spinoff directed by Travis Knight.
The project is in early development and it is unclear who will produce. It is expected that Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto, who have acted as producers on all the film projects, will be involved.
Paramount had no comment.
The new stand-alone shows Paramount’s intent to develop a range of Transformers projects as it seeks to dig deeper into the IP’s well as the new age of movie watching includes not just a big-screen outing every two or three years but higher output and across more delivery channels, including its newly rebooted streaming service, Paramount+.
The project also shows Paramount is seeking diverse voices to make the brand more resonant with modern audiences.
Ramirez worked on shows such as FX’s Sons of Anarchy and Netflix’s Daredevil, the latter of which allowed him to leap to co-showrunner and co-creator status on Defenders, which acted as a culmination of sorts for the Marvel shows that included Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and Daredevil. He is repped by UTA.
Soto’s Charm City premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and was released on HBO Max in October. The well-regarded drama has been a door-opener for the filmmaker, who recently booked the coveted gig of directing Blue Beetle for Warner Bros. and DC. He is repped by CAA and Redefine Entertainment.
