If you think that the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee actually sounds like it might be good after reading this piece, don't be alarmed - we're in the same boat and it's kind of weird.
THR reports this morning that John Cena and Hailee Steinfeld have both signed on to star in the spinoff that will be directed by Travis Knight. Does that name sound familiar? It should, because he directed the Oscar-nominated, critically-acclaimed, woefully-underseen Kubo & The Two Strings.
Knight was also best known as the lead animator for Laika Entertainment, who made such films as ParaNorman, Coraline and the aforementioned Kubo & The Two Strings. The film will, according to THR's sources, be set in the '80s and see Steinfeld as a young woman who finds a battered VW Bug that is, in fact, Bumblebee attempting to seek refuge.
There's a lot of interesting choices here, but yes, this is still a Transformers spinoff and there's a decent chance that it'll probably be crap. However, Kubo & The Two Strings was a very well-made film that just didn't find its audience. Moreover, Hailee Steinfeld seems to have a sharp eye for picking the right film, such as Edge Of Seventeen, Tommy Lee Jones' The Homesman, John Carney's Begin Again, and she won an Oscar nomination for True Grit, as well. John Cena, meanwhile, is obviously trying to move out of the WWE in a more meaningful way and avoid WWE Studios-produced films like The Marine and 12 Rounds.
So, yeah, this could be... interesting. Let's leave it there.
Via THR