To date, no one has gone to see any “Transformers” movie because of its emotional content. Moviegoers fork over their hard earned cash to watch robots beating the ever-living-crap out of each and destroy various city landscapes, while the human characters are mere window dressing to keep the thinnest of plot threads moving forward. However, for next year’s spinoff “Bumblebee,” it looks like the aim is bring some heart into the franchise.
The talent on board so far is certainly interesting, with Travis Knight (“Kubo And The Two Strings“) making his live-action directorial debut and Hailee Steinfeld slated to star. Also, the film will be set in 1985, lending everything a retro feel. But again, it’s the feelings that will be part of the new fabric of “Transformers.”
READ MORE: Michael Bay Squashes Rumors That ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Is 3 Hours Long
“There are dramatically less Transformers. We hired purposefully Travis Knight, who is a very distinct filmmaker. You can’t compete with Michael[Bay] — you’re gonna lose. And also I think the audience wants something different all the time, let’s keep them interested. They’re gonna get a very emotionally complex story, a very tight story in terms of its location and in terms of its storytelling,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Collider.
If that’s not enough, he goes on to namecheck Brad Bird‘s terrific “The Iron Giant” as a touchpoint for the picture.
“In fact it reminds me a little bit of ‘Iron Giant’ years ago when I did that movie at Warner Bros. It just reminds me a little bit of that where it was very contained and yet it didn’t feel small,” he said.
That’s a pretty high bar to hit, but we’ll see if they clear it when “Bumblebee” opens on June 8, 2018.