Seth Rogen told Jonah Hill to turn down 'Transformers' and make his own movie about fighting robots

• Jonah Hill was approached to star in a "Transformers" sequel.
• Seth Rogen said he told Hill to turn down the project and focus on producing his own films.
• "You want to make a movie about fightin' robots? Make your own movie about fightin' robots," he said.

Jonah Hill famously turned down a role in the "Transformers" franchise in 2008, and in a recent interview with The New York Times, Seth Rogen revealed that he encouraged Hill to reject the film and to instead focus on producing his own projects.

At the time, Hill was emerging from the huge success of "Superbad," which was co-written by Seth Rogen, and he was approached by Steven Spielberg who was producing the "Transformers" series to star alongside Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox in the sequel with Michael Bay directing.

The Times reports that Hill turned to Rogen for advice on whether to accept the role to which Rogen replied: "I can see if Steven Spielberg's calling you, asking you to do something, how that's hard to turn down," but Rogen ultimately concluded: "You want to make a movie about fightin' robots? Make your own movie about fightin' robots. You can do that. That's on the table now."

The role of Shia LaBeouf's college roommate, which Hill was reportedly offered, was given to actor Ramon Rodriguez and that year Jonah Hill went on to appear in Ben Stiller's "Night at the Museum" sequel. At the time, Hill told reporters: "I just think like I have to prove myself more in what I'm doing now, making comedies and stuff before I do the big action movie or something, you know? I'm not proven yet."

Seth Rogen recounts a similar story in his forthcoming essay collection titled "Yearbook." The writer-director writes that Steven Spielberg approached him and his writing partner Evan Goldberg to collaborate on a project inspired by the 1984 sci-fi movie "The Last Starfighter." The pair had already begun working on a similar project and with the belief that they could now produce their own work without the push of a major studio or filmmaker like Spielberg, they turned him down.

The Times report reveals further chapters from Rogen's book including one particular essay on the time Rogen and Goldberg met George Lucas in 2012, and the "Star Wars" creator told the pair that he was certain the world would come to an end that year. Lucas denied the account to the newspaper.

Rogen's "Yearbook" is to be published on May 11th by Random House.