Transformers 5 in 2017?

Today Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner held their 2015 Quarter 1 (that ends March 31st) Conference Call to cheer lead a good period for the company. As part of that he was asked about the upcoming Transformers movies. The key bit of information is that they are holding to have the next film out in 2017.

"Our plan with the studio and filmakers you may have heard some writers being hired and we have in fact brought in Akiva Goldsman to lead a group of writers to really create a strategic plan around Transformers. We think there are any number of stories to be told from the brand that has been around for 30 years with amazing canon and mythology. We would expect the sequel to the Transformers movie [TF4] to happen in 2017."

That is a year later than previously aiming for but does tie in nicely to a 10th Anniversary of the movie franchise. More importantly (for Paramount and Hasbro) it allows for a repeat of the Pain and Gain plan where Bay does a "smaller" film then does the next Transformers film. The director is currently in pre-production on "13 Hours" for filming later this year and I assume release next year. Since it isn't CGI heavy he can probably complete the film with plenty of time for pre-production on Transformers 5 in 2016 while occasionally checking in as Akiva Goldsman and company work on the cinematic universe game plan this year. Keep in mind Bay has not officially committed to Transformers 5 so this is just theory but he nets nearly $100 million per film so as long as the studio is willing to pay him, I don't see why he would say no to that kind of money. Thanks to Silver Knight for the link.