We are less than a month or so away from the anticipated release of Michael Bay’s latest installment in the juggernaut franchise that is Transformers with Transformers: The Last Knight. And today, some new nuggets of news on the film and indeed the future spin-off films have come to light.
First up is a casting tidbit – news from The Hollywood Reporter states that Pitch Perfect 2 star and pop superstar Hailee Steinfeld is officially on board the first spin-off from the series which is a film focusing on Bumblebee. THR reports that the actress will play a “tomboy who also holds a job as a mechanic after school.”
Travis Knight, who won a BAFTA for his brilliant animated film Kubo and the Two Strings, is helming the movie and will be the director’s first foray into live-action. Christina Hodson, screenwriter of both Unforgettable and Shut In, has written the script under the guidance of the franchise’s “brain trust” that includes Michael Bay and Oscar Winning writer Akiva Goldsman, as well as writers Robert Kirkman, Zak Penn, Jeff Pinker, Lindsey Beer and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway.
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Secondly, some whispers had begun to creep out online regarding the length of the latest installment, with some suggesting that the finished cut runs at over 3 HOURS long! That said, however, the Transformers have has some pretty bum-numbing runtimes – Revenge of the Fallen was 2hrs 24mins, Dark of the Moon 2hr 34mins and Age of Extinction, was, incredibly, 2hrs 45mins.
Thankfully, Michael Bay has stepped in to address the rumours and says that the runtime isn’t quite true, saying:
The Transformers series has been wildly successful since the first installment debuted in 2007. As a whole, the franchise has grossed over $3.7billion worldwide with Dark of the Moon still the highest single grosser with $1.123billion worldwide.
Transformers: The Last Knight opens on June 22nd.
