Bumblebee movie underway as studio seeks new director

Bumblebee has been one of the most loved characters in the "Transformers" movie franchise. Paramount, eyeing to expand its universe, is working on a spinoff film featuring the yellow Camaro.

Deadline reports that the studio already has a script to work on, thanks to scribe Cristina Hodson. Hodson, a late addition to the "writer's room" set up by Paramount and Michael Bay to expand the world of "Transformers", is one of three female scriptwriters (along with Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet) to join the team in the summer of 2015. She is also currently working with Warner Bros for the upcoming "Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey" film.

With a scheduled release date of June 2018, Paramount is now on a search for a director to helm the production of the film. This would prove to be the first step towards building a cinematic universe, which seems to be the trend nowadays. The studio also aims for the project to cost less than the main "Transformers" titles, according to Screen Rant, while being a more child-friendly variant of Michael Bay's PG-13 blockbusters.  There are no reports at the moment if Bay, which helmed all of the main "Transformers" movies, is interested in taking part of the spinoff as well.

Bumblebee has been a part of "Transformers" since it began in 1984. As part of the Autobot faction, he first transformed into a yellow Volkswagen Beetle before given the Chevrolet Camaro/Pontiac Firebird vehicles. His movie incarnation started with a 1977 Camaro, but was updated during the first film to a 2006 concept Camaro. Apart from his yellow color scheme, his character is usually treated as the "little brother" of the group. He is also known to be close to humans, befriending Sparkplug, and later on Spike Witwicky. In the movies, he was charged of being the protector of Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf, and became the de facto leader of the Autobots in hiding on the fourth film while Optimus Prime was out.