Wow. “Transformers 3” kicks off shooting less than six weeks from now, and the cast for Michael Bay’s blockbuster has been filling out: Shia LaBeouf is again taking the lead, with John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey and Alan Tudyck all on board. One cast member who’ll no longer be in the film? Megan Fox, who’s spent the previous two films in compromising positions over motor vehicles as LaBeouf’s character’s girlfriend Mikaela.
Fox and director Michael Bay had a famously contentious relationship on the last film, with Fox telling an interviewer last year “[Michael] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. It’s endearing to watch him. He’s so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he’s a tyrant.”
Nikki Finke suggests in her report that Paramount won’t be exercising their option on Fox in the third film, something which was “ultimately” Bay’s decision. Studio spin doctors suggest that “giving Shia a new love interest makes more sense for the story,” because obviously the most important thing drawing the kids to movies where giant metallic racist stereotypes punch each other is the question of who LaBeouf is banging. Bay is going straight into casting her replacement now, and we’re sure that, with six whole weeks notice to create a new character, it’ll be well-drawn and three dimensional. But since when did that matter in a Michael Bay film?