Another high-priced writer to join 'Transformers 2'
Ehren Kruger will team with Kurtzman & Orci to scribble the next robot flick.
Horror scribe Ehren Kruger will join the screenwriting team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci for DreamWorks/Paramount's Transformers 2, says The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit.
Director Michael Bay, exec producer Steven Spielberg, and producers Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Don Murphy will return for the sequel, as will star Shia LaBeouf, who signed a multi-picture contract when he did the first movie.
Kruger (The Ring) impressed Bay and Hasbro president Brian Goldner with his knowledge of Transformers mythology.
Sources suggest that the unfinalized writing deal could be as high as $7 million--a record for an adapted screenplay. Several factors may have necessitated this.
While the first film made $315 million, the WGA contract with the studios is about to expire. Add to that Kurtzman's and Orci's workloads as writers on J.J. Abrams' Star Trek XI and as producers on Dreamworks' Eagle Eye and Nightlife, the latter of which is being scripted by Kruger, who also is adapting Stephen King's The Talisman for exec prod Spielberg and Torso for director David Fincher at Paramount.
Since the studio hopes to make Transformers 2 before the potential talent strike, the stacks of greenbacks would serve as incentive for some fast typing.
The first Transformers arrives on DVD October 16th.
[Thanks to Frosty at Collider.com for the link.]