‘Transformers’ films set for next three years, spin-off ‘Bumblebee’ will be ‘at a lower cost’
Paramount unveiled plans to make a new Transformers movie every year, copying the Disney template for big blockbusters, beginning with a big release in 2017, followed by a Bumblebee standalone film in 2018.
Copying the Star Wars scheme, a spinoff will drop in between each Transformers big budget tentpole film and Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey in The Hollywood Reporter:
There are characters in the Transformers universe that can be and should be made into their own movies. We will make the first movie with Michael and go right into a Bumblebee movie, which will be at a lower cost.
Grey bragged that Paramount has “brought in a pretty strong writing staff run by Akiva Goldsman, and they have put together eight or nine interesting stories.” He added, “So, between that group and Steven Spielberg’s guidance on a story level, these characters are a big business for us to pursue.”
THR also hints that the third film, set for release on June 28th, 2019, will also be a standalone spin-off movie and not a Transformers franchise sequel as originally reported.
The Bumblebee movie will be more of a self-contained story, probably harkening back to a boy and his car from the original Michael Bay film, but adding the world-at-stakes consequences and cliches.
Michael Bay is only committed to directing Transformers 5, due out on on June 23rd, 2017. The Bumblebee movie arrives June 8th, 2018.
Rumors of a possible Bumblebee movie began to circulate last summer when Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner suggested, “We could see stories told around Bumblebee and other characters.”
