Lorenzo di Bonaventura has confirmed Hailee Steinfeld will be the lead character in the ‘Transformers’ spin-off movie ‘Bumblebee’.
While Michael Bay, the director of the five ‘Transformers’ movies, is stepping away from the franchise, studio Paramount and toy company Hasbro – who own the rights to the brand – are working on a spin-off based on the fan favourite Autobot Bumblebee, and di Bonaventura revealed the 20-year-old star will play a big part in the motion picture.
Speaking to Den of Geek, the producer said: "We are starting to shoot a week from today. We had decided to do this well before ‘The Last Knight’ had come out.
"Our feeling was that we wanted to give the audience a different experience. Bumblebee’s designed to be a more intimate movie.
"What we’re trying to do is deliver, a love story may be too strong of a term, but it is a coming of age for Bumblebee and our lead character, Hailee Steinfeld."
Bumblebee made his film debut in the 2007 ‘Transformers’ movie as a lovable yellow Autobot who protected Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) from the Decepticons, and instantly became a fan favourite.
The motion picture will be written by Christina Hodson and directed by ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ filmmaker Travis Knight, which will be his live-action debut.
The producer worked alongside Bay on all five of the previous movies and despite the latest ‘The Last Knight’ being Bay’s last film it didn’t do overly well at the box office.
But di Bonaventura claims there could be another flick.
He added: "Yeah, I think so. I do. Look, it was a great run. I think going forward, we learned some lessons and I think we need to change it up.
"I think Michael would be the first one to say that. It’s one of the reasons why we were trying to bring in the Arthurian myth, in fact, in ‘The Last Knight’, to create that different sense of what that movie’s about.
"I think we were successful in that, but obviously not in the box office."
Hailee Steinfeld confirmed for Bumblebee
