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Speaking with the TMZ website, Transformers filmmaker Michael Bay gave up some minor story details about where Transformers 4 fits into the overall 'bot movie universe. Bay dismissed the idea that he would reboot the Transformers film series by making the fourth movie a reboot. Instead, the new movie will take place four years after the conclusion of Dark of the Moon, and that the events that took place throughout the first three Transformers movies will be remembered.

Bay also said that right now he's in the "inception" phase of building Transformers 4's storyline. "It’s going a full new direction and feels very natural how it’s going in that direction," he remarked.

By way of a post on Michael Bay's official website, Mark Wahlberg has been confirmed as the new leading man of the Transformers movie franchise.

"Mark is awesome. We had a blast working on Pain and Gain and I’m so fired up to be back working with him. An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy," said Bay in his online statement.

So why was Paramount or Bay being duplicitous about Wahlberg being in Transformers 4? Why the secrecy?

It's a fair question, and here's our best guess: someone was tipped off while negotiations were still underway with Wahlberg. Knowing that things could head south before he signed on-board, the studio and Bay's people dismissed the idea as just another fanciful internet rumor when it wasn't.

Also released today: that logo for Transformers 4. It's a transformer itself, part number and part Decepticon symbol.

An unconfirmed report published yesterday states that a casting call has gone out looking for the two new lead characters in Transformers 4. The report states that the main character will be a female teenage high school student, which, if true, is a break away from the male character of sam Witwicky we saw in the first three Transformers movies.

Also mentioned in the report is the female character's boyfriend, a Texas race car driver.

After the formal announcement that Paramount will make Transformers 4, and that Michael Bay will return to direct, the next step was to learn what details have been decided so far about what the next movie's storyline will be about and who, if any, of the first trilogy's cast will return for the four-quel.

Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was asked those questions by MTV, and got the following answers:

On the approach: "Yeah Michael’s gonna direct and it’ll be releasing in the summer of 2014. We’re excited and I think the challenge there is we really are gonna do a reboot, and what that’s gonna be we don’t even know yet."

On whether any of the cast members will return for TF4: "Well I mean again it’s hybrid. It’s not the way—I’m not involved with Spider-Man but what I perceive Spider-Man to be is a redoing of the whole thing, [Transformers 4] is not. It’s an evolution. There’s still continuity that’s going on, and yet there’ll be a lot of new cast. Whether there’s anybody from the [original] cast, we don’t even know yet. But the truth is, it’s gonna be a whole new story. The characters that would certainly come along would be Optimus and Bumblebee I’m sure."

On the rumors that Jason Statham has been asked to star in Transformers 4: "No, it’s so silly. We’ve gotta get a story first. You can’t pick characters until you have a story."

It's official: Paramount Pictures has slated Transformers 4 for a June 29, 2014 release. The studio has also reached a deal with director Michael Bay to bring him back. [Full story]

An online source claims that secret talks between Michael Bay and the studio have begun for the filmmaker to come back to the Transformers franchise.

The story goes that Paramount wants Bay to make Transformers 4 for them, while Bay wants to make a $20 million dollar action/comedy vehicle called Pain and Gain. Paramount will let Bay make Pain and Gain first only on the condition that he also signs to direct TF4, with a late 2012 start reportedly in the cards. [Full story]

Now that we all know that the third Transformers movie is a hit, we can only wonder where the future of this profitable film franchises is headed. Coming Attractions creator Patrick Sauriol puts his thinking cap on and speculates on what Transformers 4 might contain with storylines, new characters and ways to keep us interested.

Read the exclusive article, "Where Should Transformers 4: The Movie Go?", right here on Coming Attractions.