With Michael Bay pretty much confirmed as a director (though Transformers movie producer Don Murphy is still avoiding any confirmation on his message board, the holy grail of Transformer info) this week, the live action Transformers movie is ready to transform and roll out. DreamWorks, Hasbro, and Paramount have all jointly announced their targeted release date. Right now they’re shooting for July 4, 2007.

Fourth of July is a big weekend, which means at least someone out there has a lot of confidence in this movie’s potential. I mean, it could have ended up being treated like another Hellboy or Daredevil, but they’re plopping it down right in one of the biggest money making movie weekend of the year. Let’s see if they stick with it.

In other Transformers news, script writers Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci were out doing press for The Island and talked a little about their Transformers screenplay. After seeing The Island, I had a lot more confidence in them to take on this, that was until they opened their mouths.

Kurtzman describes their take as the story of a boy and his car, and then compares Transformers to Back to the Future… a comparison which I really don’t get. Is Optimus powered by a flux capacitor? Anyway, they’re taking a tact that focuses on the human element to the story, not the robots. In other words they’re playing it safe and writing the movie the way just about every other Hollywood movie is written. No doubt it’ll also involve a cute kid, I predict another paycheck windfall for the dirty muppet Dakota Fanning.