Bumblebee Movie Set in 1985, Compared to The Iron Giant

In an interview with Collider, Transformers: The Last Knight and Bumblebee movie producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed the Bumblebee movie will be set in 1985 and compares the story to The Iron Giant (great animated movie, should see if you have not already). Video after the break. The female lead will be played by Hailee Steinfeld but other details about the story remain unknown.

“I know we’re doing a spinoff first in the Bumblebee movie, and that is a very distinctive departure from what you’ve been seeing so far… The objective of that movie is to develop more time with less robots in a way, and to go back to 1985 and go back to sort of the original heritage if you would of the Transformers. So it has a very distinct idea in it, and then whatever is gonna happen with the chemistry is what’s gonna happen, but it really is a young female lead opposite Bumblebee.

There are dramatically less Transformers. We hired purposefully Travis Knight, who is a very distinct filmmaker. You can’t compete with Michael – you’re gonna lose. Also I think the audience wants something different all the time, let’s keep them interested. They’re gonna get a very emotionally complex story, a very tight story in terms of its location and in terms of its storytelling. In fact it reminds me a little bit of Iron Giant years ago when I did that movie at Warner Bros. It just reminds me a little bit of that where it was very contained and yet it didn’t feel small.”