It was more than a year ago when 12 writers came together on the Paramount Studios lot to specs that would expand the Transformers universe. That meeting produced nine pitches, four of which were reportedly approved of.

Now one of those spinoffs has found a director. According to new reports Laika head and Kubo and the Two Strings director Travis Knight has been tapped to helm the spinoff Bumblebee. More on the story below.

THR says Knight will be using a script written by Christina Hodson (Shut In). The film will center on the black and yellow Camaro. This marks the first time that Knight will be directing a live-action film. Apparently Paramount is pleased with his work on Kubo, which was his directorial debut. Despite being a box office bomb, the film was a critical favorite – not to me – and earned itself two Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects.

But one has to wonder what this means for Laika. It seems strange that the head of an animation studio would be jumping ship to another studio for a tentpole film. Does this mean the animation studio is in trouble, especially since their last film could not meet box office expectations? Not only that but Lakia’s films made less than the one before it.

The plot of Bumblebee is still unclear, but one has to assume that Bumblebee will be on some sort of adventure with a human companion not too far behind. And there is plenty of source material to work with since the character has been in all of the Transformers films to date. Not that it really matters since the films aren’t as interconnected as they like to think. It should be interesting to see if the events of Transformers: The Last Knight will have an impact on the film. With Knight directing the film, it finally gives the franchise a new voice.

While a Bumblebee spinoff has been in the works for quite some time, we have yet to hear about the other three pitches that were approved by Akiva Goldsman.

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Michael Bay, and Steven Spielberg are producing with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis.

Bumblebee is slated for a June 8, 2018, release.

[Source: THR]