producer of the bumblebee-focused transformers spinoff, lorenzo di bonaventura, has admitted transformers: the last knight fell short of expectations for paramount pictures, effectively stalling the franchise as audiences had come to know it.
for context, the fifth live-action transformers movie earned $650 million at the worldwide box office, which is not a small number by any means, but when you consider that's half of what the previous two transformers films made -- while carrying the weight of a near-$350 million budget -- the last knight was certainly a red flag for paramount.
well, di bonaventura is quite open about the film's essential failure. in an in-depth piece discussing the producer's bumblebee spinoff, di bonaventura acknowledged the misfire that was the last knight.
related: bumblebee is back in surprisingly stirring trailer for transformers spinoff
“the fifth one was definitely down,” di bonaventura told entertainment weekly. “the audience looks for something new at some point in time, but it’s so hard to judge when. i think the lesson was, after the fourth movie, that was the when. but we didn’t see the fatigue. we didn’t see the signs that they wanted us to change up how we were presenting it.”
with bumblebee, di bonaventura hopes that mixing up the usual cinematic transformers formula will reinvigorate the franchise, which (clearly) to pretty much everyone involved, is desperately needed.
directed by travis knight (kubo and the two strings) from a script by christina hodson, bumblebee stars hailee steinfeld, john cena, jorge lendeborg jr., pamela adlon, jason drucker, abby quinn, rachel crow, ricardo hoyos and gracie dzienny. the film arrives dec. 21.