Bay Says "Transformers: Age Of Extinction" Is Less "Goofy"

Director Michael Bay promises that the upcoming "Transformers: Age Of Extinction" will try and stay away from the "goofy" tone of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon". 

Bay tells Yahoo: "I wanted the first Transformers to be very suburban and less cool. This is a much more cinematic one. I focused on keeping this one slick. There won't be any goofiness in this one. We went a bit too goofy [on the last one]. It feels like a new chapter, this movie. But it's not a reboot. This movie lives in the history of the Transformers movies, and this one starts three years after the last. It feels fresh... I'm feeling really good about this one. I love my cast. There's a huge scale to this, but also huge soul."

Bay is proud of the fact that he was able to call on visual effects specialist John Frazier to deliver as many practical effects on screen as possible for the film:

"It's kind of a dying art in Hollywood - nobody does anything for real. John is one of the grand masters of physical effects. He can't hear right because he's done so many explosions. We still hold the Guinness World Record for Pearl Harbor: John rigged 350 bombs in seven seconds. Nowadays I think you would fake a lot of it."

The post also offers a few more plot details. The Earth has been left scarred after the events of the first three movies, with humanity picking up the pieces after the Transformers disappeared.

The new film follows a high school student, and daughter (Nicola Peltz) of Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager--an inventor who discovers a buried Transformer, which sets the stage for their return. Jack Reynor plays her race car driver boyfriend.

Stanley Tucci has joined the cast along with a mysterious young actor who hasn't been identified yet. former Frasier star Kelsey Grammer has been cast as the human bad guy---counter intelligence officer Harold Attinger. British actress Sophia Myles ("Moonlight," "Thunderbirds") will play a scientist in the film Comedian-turned-actor T.J. Miller will play Wahlberg's pal in the movie. "Resident Evil: Retribution" co-star Li Bingbing also stars.  Chinese singer/actor Han Geng co-stars. The 29-year-old is a superstar sensation in both his home country – he has 35 millions followers on his Weibo account – and South Korea, where he began his show-business career as a member of the chart-topping pop group Super Junior. Josh Duhamel recently said that they are trying to ensure an appearance for his military hero character, Major Lennox in the film. Titus Welliver appears as well.

Bay has confirmed that the next film is set four years after the events in Chicago as seen in the third film--Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Ehren Kruger wrote the script for the fourth film. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing the film.

Production for Transformers 4 began in June. The sequel hits theaters on June 27th, 2014.