Lest you think Michael Bay is taking a turn toward the serious with his upcoming Benghazi movie "13 Hours," the master of explosions is still keeping plenty on his slate that will let him light up screens like New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
READ MORE: Michael Bay To Direct Benghazi Drama ’13 Hours’
Bay will direct an adaptation of the forthcoming book "Time Salvager" by Wesley Chu, with the project set up at the director’s longtime home Paramount. The story follows a convict who is set to Earth’s past in order to save humanity’s future. Here’s the book synopsis:
Convicted criminal James Griffin-Mars is no one’s hero. In his time, Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humans have fled into the outer solar system to survive, eking out a fragile, doomed existence among the other planets and their moons. Those responsible for delaying humanity’s demise believe time travel holds the key, and they have identified James, troubled though he is, as one of a select and expendable few ideally suited for the most dangerous job in history.
James is a chronman, undertaking missions into Earth’s past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. The laws governing use of time travel are absolute; break any one of them and, one way or another, your life is over. Most chronmen never reach old age; the stress of each jump through time, compounded by the risk to themselves and to the future, means that many chronmen rapidly reach their breaking point, and James Griffin-Mars is nearing his.
On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets Elise Kim, an intriguing scientist from a previous century, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, and in violation of the chronmen’s highest law, James brings Elise back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, somehow finding allies, and perhaps discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity’s home world.
No word yet on who will write the screenplay, but these days, Bay is certainly rubbing shoulders with all kinds of scribes as he builds the writers room for the "Transfomers" sequels and spinoffs. The latest added to the group are Christina Hodson (who penned the upcoming Naomi Watts thriller "Shut In" and is working on the brewing "The Fugitive" redo) and Lindsey Beer (who worked on the developing "Short Circuit" remake). They join the brain trust that includes Robert Kirkman ("The Walking Dead"), Art Marcum & Matt Holloway ("Iron Man," "Punisher: War Zone"), Zak Penn ("X2," "Elektra," "The Incredible Hulk," "The Avengers") and Jeff Pinkner ("Lost," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"), who will figure out how to keep "Transformers" going forever. [The Wrap/Deadline]
