Michael Bay To Unleash Bayhem At Sony With Multiyear First-Look Deal

Michael Bay will continue to blow s*** up for the foreseeable future thanks to a new multiyear first-look deal with Sony. The deal will allow Bay to produce both film and TV projects. That includes Black Five, an ensemble drama Bay will direct from a script by Ehren Kruger. Bay has a history with Sony, having made his feature directorial debut there with Bad Boys.

Per Deadline, Michael Bay just inked himself a big Bayhem deal to produce film and TV projects over at Sony. Bay's first directorial effort as part of this deal is Black Five, a project that was announced last year. There are no plot details for the film, other than the fact that it's an "ensemble drama" and that it's going to be "high on action," because...of course it is. I can't help but wonder if this is going to be in the same style as Bay's recent film, the big, loud mess that was Netflix's 6 Underground. That, too, was an ensemble film with a number in its title. Or maybe it's like 13 Hours, another Bay ensemble with a numerical title. Maybe there's a pattern here. Maybe all of these films exist in the same cinematic universe! Or maybe I'm just trying to pad this story out. Who can say?

I'm not anti-Bay. I think The Rock is a lot of fun, and I do appreciate his commitment to his very specific brand. That said, I thought 6 Underground was pretty terrible, and if that's the type of movie Michael Bay wants to make now, I might have to skip whatever else he's cooking up over at Sony. Then again, I seem to be in the minority there, since 6 Underground was one of Netflix's biggest hits of 2019. But hey, Bay has plenty of solid producing credits to his name, including A Quiet Place and Ouija: Origin of Evil. So that's something.

Bay's big Sony deal was worked out just before Hollywood had to shut down due to the coronavirus, which means that there's no word on when he's going to start working on his new projects. Everything is at a virtual standstill at the moment, so even if Bay had everything in place to start shooting Black Five tomorrow, he couldn't. Sooner or later, though, that'll change, and Bay will be back blowing up some stuff as he spins a camera around it all.