Michael Bay will be directing the third entry in the screen Transformers franchise, with the release date now moved forward a year to July 1st, 2011.

On his official website, Bay noted that he has had meetings with ILM, and he and scriptwriter Ehren Kruger have had meetings with Hasbro about new characters to introduce in the move. "Well, it's official: We have a great Transformers 3 story," Bay noted. "Today is Day One."

Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are expected to return for the third movie, which will shoot next year.

Changing the release date means that Transformers 3 will join an already-busy summer for Paramount Studios, with the Marvel movies Thor and Captain America premiering in May and late July, and the Kung Fu Panda sequel The Kaboom of Doom launching on June 3rd.