You'll be hard-pressed to find many people who actually liked 'Transformers: Age of Extinction.' But unlike the previous three movies in this franchise, the box office actually reflected that. With the film currently struggling to hit $250 million at the domestic box office (despite doing great numbers overseas), it isn't that surprising that director Michael Bay is jumping ship on 'Transformers 5'.

Buried at the bottom of a USA Today profile, the world's most controversial mainstream moviemaker claims that he's done with the 'Transformers' franchise. For real this time. After all, he claimed to be done after 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' but Paramount drove a dump truck full of cash to his house (and financed his passion project, 'Pain and Gain') so he came back. Bay's extremely diplomatic statement is as follows:

There's kind of a new chapter, a new direction in movies I want to make. I have a lot of stories to tell. And it's about flexing new muscles.

In other words, he's done with those toy movies and "he will pass the baton for future Transformer movies to a new director." He's ready to go back to making projects that allow him to exploit his full Bay-age in R-rated glory. Or, uh, make a documentary on elephant poaching, as the original article says. What the heck would a Michael Bay documentary on elephant poaching look like? We have no earthly idea.

Even with the dwindling 'Transfomers' box office, Bay is having a great year, with 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'The Last Ship' (he was a producer on both) proving to be surprise successes. The simple fact of the matter is that 'Transformers' needs him more than he needs it. At this point, who can blame him for moving on?

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