A Michael Bay-less "Transformers" film is now inevitable as the planned film spin-off featuring fan favorite Bumblebee, the black and yellow Autobot, is now searching for its director. Bay has directed the first four "Transformers" films, to which he had previously expressed that he would no longer sign up for another after the completion of the initial trilogy.
But Bay has obviously changed his mind when he took under his helm the fourth film, "Transformers: Age of Extinction". He has also directed next year's offering, "Transformers: The Last Knight", which will open next year, as reported by Screen Rant.
According to the same report, Paramount Pictures has already confirmed that the Bumblebee spin-off will be the first installment of a planned series of spin-offs to be released in-between of the main "Transformers" live-action installments. This means that Paramount will be forming a so-called "Transformers" cinematic universe.
In a report by Deadline, the film's script will be written by Christina Hodson, who has been part of the writing group formed by Paramount Pictures to plot the future direction of stories in a much larger "Transformers" film franchise. In fact, Hodson has reportedly completed already the script draft for the Bumblee spin-off that Paramount is "sweet on" and that the studio is now on the hunt for a director to oversee the project.
Hodson is a fast rising star among Hollywood scribes. While her only released film so far is the dramatic thriller "Shut In", she has already been recruited to write for the upcoming Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey movie which will be set in the DC extended universe. She has also written the script draft for the reboot of "The Fugitive" in addition to the Bumblebee script that she had already completed.
The "Transformers" Bumblebee spin-off is expected to be released on June 8,2018.