This little plastic toy could be the thing that saves theTransformers.
Its one of those things where there is no simple answer.
And theyre finally becoming the stars of their own films.
Anthony Breznican
The barbs of critics were knocked aside like puny arrows against the iron hull of these behemoths.
Then, last year, theTransformersfilms abruptly ran out of energon.
The fifth one was definitely down, di Bonaventura says.
Anthony Breznican
The audience looks for something new at some point in time, but its so hard to judge when.
I think the lesson was, after the fourth movie,thatwas the when.
But we didnt see the fatigue.
Jaimie Trueblood/Paramount Pictures
We didnt see the signs that they wanted us to change up how we were presenting it.
We were headed down the Bumblebee path well before the release of the last Transformers, he says.
They decided to go back in time.
Paramount Pictures
Thats when theTransformers(at least as we know them) were born.
The toys hit American shelves in 1984.
The gun turned into the megalomaniacal villain Megatron, the tape player became his monotone henchman Soundwave.
Paramount Pictures
Lets put it inTo Kill a Mockingbirdterms: Optimus was Atticus Finch, and Bumblebee was his child Scout.
When Bay developed his 2007 live-action film, he made Bumblebee a Camaro.
Camero Turns Into a Beetle
Honestly: The Beetle is not a cool car.
Anthony Breznican
Its an amazing vehicle, of course.
But its not a sleek, high-powered Camero.
Its not something you think of as strong.
Its not cool its warm.
Ooookay, di Bonaventura says.
The warmth of it certainly helps us, but also, the sheer freshness of it is really fun.
Psychologically, youre absolutely right, di Bonaventura says.
Its kind of funny.
A metal guy made out of a Camaro, or Bumblebee … is one is weaker than the other?
I dont know, but itishow you feel.
It is what your experience is of it, in a way.
It turns out to be an alien robot, of course.
Suddenly, her destiny is altered in extremely unexpected ways.
Spielberg has executive produced all of the Bay movies, but stays out of most of the creative decisions.
And Steinfeld proved to be the fearsome flesh-and-blood lead they needed.
Im just amazed at how talented she is, di Bonaventura says.
I dont think Ive ever seen an actor never miss a beat for the entire shoot.
We ended up ahead of schedule because she was just so on it all the time.
We could move quicker.
Will losing that small faction matter, if millions of women and girls replace them?
That seems like an easy choice.
I know we didnt get it wrong with her, thats for sure.
They decided to go back 30 years, basing their origin story in 1987.
We wanted to firmly establish when Bumblebee got here, di Bonaventura says.
We have elements in Cybertron, but really Earth is where we spend our time.
Hes on a mission to Earth that goes awry.
As the bee nest in his wheel well attests, he has been down and out for a while.
But they have, Ill say, a little more of the silhouette of those.
The complexity of theTransformersin the other movies rendered them all a bit anonymous.
Knight likes to point out that Bumblebee needs to be huggable.
And if you hug one of Bays robots, the exposed churning gears would probably shred a human.
Plus, there were too many of them.
Another change was reducing the sheer number of robots-in-disguise featured in this movie.
So he has three primary antagonists.
Two others, who take the form of automobiles, are also being kept secret for now.
We get to see a lot of him in different guises.
But it has similarities to that.
You really get to buy into the central relationship between the human and the robot.
Future Movies
Well find out of all these changes work whenBumblebeedebuts in theaters on Dec. 21.
If the movie succeeds thanks to these changes, expect a very differentTransformersfranchise going forward.
For one, there will be moreBumblebeemovies, but also possible standalone projects focusing on other individual robots.
Bumblebee was selected because hes such a loved figure, and hes also more emotional than Optimus.
Those were the two likely characters.
Hes a stoic leader, and you could count on him, di Bonaventura says.
Whereas Bumblebee is the one who is more emotionally volatile.
He has a lot of ups and downs.
So it seemed like the best character to try for the first time zeroing in on one Autobot.
An Optimus Prime movie remains at the top of their list.
Id certainly like to do that, di Bonaventura says.
It would be a very different kind of movie than aBumblebeemovie, but equally interesting and different.
Right now,Bumblebeehas to pull off his own film, though.
If Bees successful, we can have a Bee 2, no doubt, di Bonaventura.
We have a good sense of where a second movie would go.
It opened up our minds to choices.
The key toTransformers, always, has been change.
We could do a time travel movie, he says.
You could take almost any genre and do it.
So I think weve got an abundance of choices.
