The Decepticons are getting some competition in the bad guy category: Kelsey Grammer has signed on to play a villain in the next installment of the “Transformers” franchise.
Grammer will appear in “Transformers 4” as a character named Harold Attinger, described as a counter intelligence agent and the main (human) antagonist in the movie. That's a bit of a role reversal for Grammer, who's known for playing affable characters like Frasier Crane on “Cheers” and “Frasier,” and Dr. Hank McCoy (a.k.a. Beast) in 2006's “X-Men: The Last Stand.”
Grammer joins fellow new cast members Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci in the film, which takes place four years after “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” Director Michael Bay says the film will “start off smaller” than its predecessors.
“To freshen the franchise we've redesigned everything from top to bottom,” Bay said. “The history of the first three movies is still there … [but] there's a reason why we're meeting a new cast.”
Bay isn't exactly known for making “small” movies -- “small” was also how he described his latest film, “Pain & Gain” -- so we're curious to see what he has in store for the next chapter of the typically over-the-top “Transformers” series. Grammer's casting is a step in the right direction, since his previous forays into playing bad guys (voicing Stinky Pete in “Toy Story 2,” his Golden Globe-winning performance on “Boss”) have been well-received.
We'll see soon. Production begins this summer.
[via Deadline]
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