Paramount is moving forward with their long-planned Transformers animated feature, and has reportedly hired Josh Cooley, the director of the Oscar-winning Toy Story 4, to helm it.

According to Deadline, the film “takes place on Cybertron, the planet from which the good-guy and bad-guy robots came from. The film revolves around the relationship between Optimus Prime and Megatron.”

Deadline says the film is separate from the main live-action film series.

The script was written by Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari (Ant-Man and the Wasp) several years ago, but now Paramount and Hasbro/eOne have “more or less begun production” on the film.

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One big reason for this Transformers project moving forward now is the coronavirus pandemic, which will complicate the production of live-action films once Hollywood gets back to work due to new health precautions and safety measures that will need to be implemented to keep casts and crews safe.

Transformers is no stranger to animation, of course, having spawned a popular cartoon in the 1980s and then launching to the big screen with 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie.

The Transformers franchise last hit theaters with 2018’s period spinoff Bumblebee, which, while the most critically acclaimed film in the franchise, was also its lowest-grossing entry.

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How do you feel about a new Transformers animated movie? Let us know in the comments.

Source: IGN.com Toy Story 4 Director to Helm Animated Transformers Movie