'Black 5': Michael Bay Will Direct New Action Film For Sony

Michael Bay has lined up his next directing gig.

The Transformers and Armageddon filmmaker will direct a new action film called Black 5 for Sony Pictures, reuniting him with that studio for the first time since Bad Boys II in 2003.

Variety reports that Bay is set to direct Black 5. The outlet doesn't have any information about the plot or content of the movie, other than the fact that it's supposed to be "high on action." That's not super helpful, since Bay has never made a movie that isn't "high on action" except for maybe Pain & Gain, a lower key crime drama that still has its fair share of car chases and explosions.Ehren Kruger wrote the script for Black 5, and he's reuniting with Bay after writing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (one of the worst major studio blockbusters of all time), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (a surprisingly fun step up that sits at or near the top of this franchise's peak), and Transformers: Age of Extinction (another dismal entry that took a monumental dive in quality from its predecessor). Kruger has also written movies like Disney's live-action remake of Dumbo, the Scarlet Johansson version of Ghost in the Shell, and the Ben Affleck crime thriller Reindeer Games. But he also wrote the paranoia drama Arlington Road and the American remake of The Ring, so there's a flash of promise in there somewhere.

Bay is currently in post-production on Six Underground, Netflix's most expensive original movie aside from maybe The Irishman; the final budget of Scorsese's upcoming film has not yet been confirmed. Six Underground stars Ryan Reynolds and was written by Deadpool and Deadpool 2 writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and that film centers on "six billionaires who fake their own deaths and form an elite team to take down bad guys." Weirdly, a rumor was once floating around that Six Underground was actually a secret Thundercats movie, but that was quickly debunked by Reese and one of our own sources close to that film's production.

Variety reports that Bay plans to begin shooting Black 5 in early 2020, as soon as he's completed Six Underground. The question now is: will Bay continue this descending-number-themed title trend and direct the fourth entry of another franchise next?