It seems we're finally getting our first TRANSFORMERS film without Michael Bay at the helm, and Paramount Pictures have certainly made an interesting choice for the director of their upcoming TRANSFORMERS spinoff focused on Bumblebee. Deadline reports that Travis Knight, director of the recent KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, has signed on to direct.
Travis Knight is also the president and CEO of Laika, the animation studio responsible for KUBO as well as COROLINE, PARANORMAN and THE BOXTROLLS. The TRANSFORMERS spinoff will undoubtedly be quite a different challenge for Knight, especially as it will mark his live-action directorial debut, but I'm just excited to see what a TRANSFORMERS movie looks like through someone else's eyes. Not much is known about BUMBLEBEE at this time, other than who it will feature of course, but the screenplay by Christina Hudson was one of the first to emerge from the TRANSFORMERS writers' room. Now that I think about it, why not just transform BUMBLEBEE into a stop-motion animated film?
BUMBLEBEE is set for a 2018 release, but the next film in the franchise, TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT, will hit theaters on June 23, 2017.