Jack Reynor has been confirmed as the lead in the next ‘Transformers’ film, director Michael Bay announced on his website yesterday.
As exclusively revealed on IFTN last month, Bay offered Reynor the part himself after being impressed with three auditions from the young Wicklow actor. ‘Armageddon’ helmer Bay was just waiting on confirmation from Paramount Pictures to confirm the news, which he did in a blog post on his michaelbay.com site yesterday.
Telling fans that Reynor’s role will pick up from the third ‘Transformers’ instalment ‘Dark of the Moon’, Bay said the fourth film is “not a reboot”, and that it will take place “exactly 4 years after the war in Chicago”.
The multi award-winning director also admitted to becoming aware of Reynor after seeing him in Lenny Abrahamson’s Irish film ‘What Richard Did’, in which Reynor plays the lead of Richard Karlsen, a wealthy secondary school student whose life changes forever after a drink-fuelled night.
Writing on his website, Bay said: “I just hired a great new actor for ‘Transformers 4’ to star against Mark Wahlberg. Jack Reynor, he is an Irish kid that came to America with 30 bucks in his pocket. Pretty ballsy. Seriously who does that? Anyway I spotted him in a great little Irish movie ‘What Richard Did’. This kid is the real deal.”
Reynor will play the love interest of Mark Wahlberg’s daughter in the film, taking over the lead role formally played by Shia LaBeouf. He beat off competition from ‘Brother & Sisters’ actor Luke Grimes, ‘Terra Nova’ actor Landon Liboiron, Brenton Thwaites from ‘Blue Lagoon: The Awakening’ and Hunter Parrish, star of ‘Weeds’.
20 year-old Reynor recently had his first success state side acting opposite Vince Vaughn and fellow Irish actor Simon Delaney. Reynor was also recently snapped up by US talent agency WME, and was today announced as a nominee for Lead Actor for the 2013 IFTA Awards for ‘What Richard Did’.
Read the initial casting story which was published on IFTN on December 20 here.
See the full list of IFTA 2013 nominees here.
