Cosmic Motors is one of those coffee table books that seems kinda cool, you pick up on a whim, then unwittingly read cover-to-cover before it burrows into your brain meat forever. It's cars and planes and racing all rolled into a thin sci-fi storyline, and now Michael Bay is making a movie out of it.
The book was created by Daniel Simon, best known for designing the vehicles in Tron: Legacy, Captain America, and Oblivion, along with Lotus' beautifully daft C-01 motorcycle after design stints at Bugatti and Lamborghini. Cosmic Motors is strictly a delivery mechanism for Simon's imagination, with stunning, painstakingly detailed vehicles tied together with just the slightest hint of a cohesive story – making it the perfect project for Bay.
Mixed between the Camarudo solo sport podster, the Icetrain, Taooa light ray gunship, and Detonator street cruiser is the story of the company behind it all, Cosmic Motors. Founded by two brothers living in the Glaxion Galaxy, it rose to prominence by turning retired battle machines into racers before expanding into every conceivable form of transportation. I'll leave it there to avoid spoilers, but that's the flimsy plot Bay has to work with, and knowing his innate ability to turn plotless drivel into explosion-laden plotless drivel, the Glaxion world is his oyster.
Bay has tapped Kyle Ward – the writer behind Machete Kills – to adapt the book into a screenplay, so that says… something. There's no word on a release date since it's still in very early days, but this has summer blockbuster written all over it. Until then, here's some shots from the book to tide you over.