Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura recently broke some bad news to MTV:

The movie’s sequel will not star Jonah Hill, as many sites have been reporting.

“No, no,” he said of Hill’s reported casting. “Ultimately, we’ll have a couple casting surprises for everybody soon.”

Director Michael Bay and returning stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Jon Voight are reportedly on board to return - and Bonaventura confirmed plans to start shooting the movie in Philadelphia and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania next month.

“Michael’s got some really great stuff planned,” he said.

Teresa Palmer, who has been rumored have landed the villainess role of Talia al Ghul in the Justice League of America movie, may also have been cast in the Transformers sequel.

Palmer, who most recently joined Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in December Boys, has landed an unspecified role in the highly-anticipated Transformers 2. Might this mean that Megan Fox might not return as Shia’s love interest in the movie?

That would suck, but it’s hard to complain if Palmer is her replacement. Take a look and see why:

This would be a surprise bit of casting:

Jonah Hill is in early negotiations to costar opposite Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 2, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.

Hill (Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) would provide the comic relief as a sidekick to Shia’s Sam Witwicky, likely portraying Sam’s college roommate. The sequel is set to begin shooting this summer.

Michael Bay has completed the script for Terminator 2.

“I’ve been writing Transformers 2,” Bay said to Rotten Tomatoes. “We’ve got our characters all designed. I always write all my scripts, my movies anyway so at least I’ve got something to give the writers. It’s like a template. We have a really good outline so I worked on that.”

Bay says he has a a handful of new characters in store for the sequel.

“When you do your first movie, you break the back of it. Now we can have a lot more fun. We can actually make the depth of these characters more fun and a lot more interesting characters. To see actually what you can achieve visually, you never know. When you go into a movie, you never know visually. I think I’ve got a lot of fun, interesting, funny characters.”

Transformers 2 is scheduled for a June 2009 release.

The movie itself may not exactly be around the corner, but fans still get excited over any Transformers 2 tidbit at all. To wit:

It looks like a production designer has already been hired for sequel. Nigel Phelps, who worked with director Michael Bay on Pearl Harbor and The Island, is listed on the United Talent Agency’s website as having the job.

DreamWorks Pictures is targeting a June 26, 2009 release date of Transformers 2. The countdown has begun!