During an interview with Yahoo! Movies to promote the upcoming release of Bumblebee, director Travis Knight has credited Steven Spielberg, executive producer on all of the Transformers movies, for coming up with the concept for this first spinoff.
“The original idea for this film actually was Steven [Spielberg’s],” said Knight. “We can thank him for this film even existing… I wanted to pay tribute to some of the movies that meant a lot to me in the 80s, specifically those were those classic Spielberg and coming-of-age movies, those Amblin movies, which always had this beautiful sense of wonder, of laughter, of tears, that really had a deep and strong beating heart at the core of it.”
Knight then went on to express his disbelief at getting the opportunity to work alongside the legendary filmmaker, stating that: “If you would have told an eight-year-old me, who was in a movie theatre sobbing my eyes out while watching E.T., that someday I would direct a movie that was executive produced by Steven Spielberg, I would have thought you were mad. I still think you’re mad, I can’t believe I’m here.”
SEE ALSO: Read our reviews of Bumblebee here and here
On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
Bumblebee is directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings), and stars Hailee Steinfeld (Edge of Seventeen), Pamela Adlon (Better Things), John Cena (Daddy’s Home 2), Stephen Schneider (Broad City), Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Jason Drucker (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul), Kenneth Choi (American Crime Story), Ricardo Hoyos (Degrassi: Next Class), Abby Quinn (Landline), Rachel Crow (Deidra & Laney Rob a Train), Grace Dzienny (Zoo) and John Ortiz (Kong: Skull Island). It is set for release on December 21st 2018 in the States and December 26th in the UK.
