Once relegated to being among the smallest and physically weakest of the Autobots - and forced to transform into a Volkswagen Beetle for Primus' sake - Bumblebee has emerged to become arguably the most recognizable and marketable member of theTransformersfranchise; sorry, Optimus. Bee’s popularity is so hot at the moment that aspin-off movie- thougha lower-cost one- centering on the vocally-challenged robot has already been announced by Hasbro and Paramount Pictures.
But whileSteve Weintraubwas discovering the status of the standalone movie while visiting the set ofTransformers: The Last Knight, he also found out quite the interesting tidbit: There exists an R-rated idea for a Bumblebee movie that will, in all likelihood, never see the light of day. That’s crazy. So while producerLorenzo di Bonaventuragot us caught up on all thingsBumblebee, be sure to read to the end to hear whatMichael Bayhad to say about the R-rated writers room take.
First up, from di Bonaventura, comes an explanation (sort of) for howTransformers: The Last Knightmight set up the spin-off movie featuring Bee:
Some of the things will have a very direct relationship. You’ll see some things in here that are laying a pipe. You won’t necessarily know that it’s laying a pipe for another movie, but it’s there.
So there’s probably, in a really meaningful way, two or three things in this movie that really have a meaningful aspect in terms of it, and then there’s a bunch of little things. But we’re not making this movie to set up the other movies. That’s what I’m trying to say. If you get too carried away with that, you stop thinking about this movie.
And this movie, the two lines of mythology in a sense give you freedom to go a lot of different places later on that may or may not directly relate to another movie, but it’s opening up the universe in a way that, I think, it’s probably the most provocative, in terms of the movie. It’s opening a really large universe of what Transformers is, and where they’ve come from, and how we relate to them, and how they relate to themselves.
As for the status of theBumblebeemovie itself:
It’s being written; Christina Hodson (Shut In, Unforgettable) is the writer.
That still gives di Bonaventura and the studio plenty of time to make their soft 2018 release date target. And since the script is still in progress, a lot could change between now and then, for example, whether or not other Transformers might show up:
No, no. It’s bumblebee’s story. I don’t think you’ll see a lot more in it. We’ll see as it evolves. In the treatment form? No.
Here’s one thing that certainly won’t makes its way to theaters: an R-rated cut ofBumblebee’sstory. Bay seems like he wanted to be more involved with it, but since it’s only at the writing stage at the moment, he’s not all-in on it just yet:
I would be very involved but we’ve got someone just starting work on the script right now. Steven [S. DeKnight] is involved too but he’s shooting too.
Also on Bay’s wish list is an R-ratedTransformersmovie, which is probably never going to happen. Still, it’s interesting that the writers room churned out an idea for an R-ratedBumblebee:
You know, yeah, that would be fun. There’s actually one idea that would be really fun R rated, with Bumblebee. I don’t wanna say, but it would be really fun. Very Quentin [Tarantino], you know.
But because Hasbro would never, in their right minds, sign off on an R-rated franchise film, you may bet that the idea won’t go much further than that writers room. But who knows, we might just learn some details about what sort of R-rated behavior Bumblebee would have gotten up to somewhere on down the line.
Would you want to see an R-ratedBumblebeemovie or an R-ratedTransformersmovie in general? Let us know in the comments!
