Paramount Pictures kicked off their Transformers film series in 2007 with Michael Bay's first directorial effort in the franchise - and he would go on the helm each of the subsequent followups, including the forthcoming fifth installment, Transformers: Age of Extinction.
In 2015, Paramount announced a Bumblebee, Sam Witwicky's friend and sidekick who has been a staple of the series since the original film. Now, Paramount has hired a director for the film as development continues.
Kubo and the Two Strings, making Bumblebee his live-action debut. Additionally, Knight will be the first director aside from Bay to helm a film in the Transformers universe.
It's been little more than a year since Bumblebee will be a 'lower-cost' movie set within the universe.
Of course, what exactly Grey means by 'lower-cost' remains to be seen. The Transformers live-action movie with the smallest budget was Bay's original 2007 film, which reportedly cost $150 million. Conversely, the most expensive installment so far is Age of Extinction with a $210 million price tag, but it has yet to be revealed how much Bay was given to work with on Transformers: The Last Knight. Perhaps the Bumblebee spinoff will be given a budget closer to that of the original Transformers movie - or even less, though considering the amount of CGI and VFX needed to bring Bumblebee to life, the price tag won't be too low.
All that aside, Bumblebee will also be the first spinoff set within a franchise that has so far stuck to a linear storyline. As a result, it's in a similar situation to last year's Star Wars franchise has been around much longer and arguably has a great deal more goodwill among fans. Still, Bumblebee will be the first true litmus test for whether Paramount's Transformers cinematic universe can reinvigorate the franchise. But we'll need to wait until 2018 before we see how Bumblebee comes together and how it's received by critics and fans alike.
Next: Transformers: The Last Knight Directly Connects to Spinoffs
Source: Deadline
