Production is set to begin at the end of the month on Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, with a start date on filming and possible working title for secrecy purposes being leaked on Wednesday.

The first of possibly dozens of spinoffs in the Transformers franchise, the 1980s set Bumblebee will star The Edge of Seventeen’s Hailee Steinfeld and has recently rounded out its human cast with actors Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos, Gracie Dzienny, and the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid star Jason Drucker. The film, Kubo and the Two Strings director Travis Knight’s live-action debut, is approaching a start date for a prime summer release next year. Now, we know when exactly that production will begin.

Omega Underground has scooped a bunch of the new details on Bumblebee, the first of which is that the film’s official title may be the much wordier Transformers Universe: Bumblebee. That title follows in the tradition of franchise like The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series, and The Maze Runner in the pattern of subtitled names after colons. According to the site, the film is set to begin production on Monday, July 31st, with filming taking place in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Beyond that, the film is going by the secretive title Brighton Falls, with extras and crew still to be searched for ahead of the planned start of production.

The significance of Brighton Falls is unknown, but generally these working titles never go beyond a reference or a joke (for example, Titanic was known as Planet Ice for its filming). These titles exist to keep the general public from flooding the production and extras from revealing key details. In what may be coincidence or intentional, the film starts production on the same day as the release of Warner Brothers’ 1999 animated science fiction film The Iron Giant. Directed by The Incredibles’ Brad Bird to critical acclaim in its time, that film is supposedly a major influence on Bumblebee.

Less than a year seems like a quick turnaround for a major blockbuster with as many special effects as a Transformers film, even if the scale will be considerably smaller and less world-destructive in Bumblebee than it is in the main films of the franchise. The production will have to work on time and effectively in order to make that June 2018 release date. The cast of Transformers Universe: Bumblebee is a gang of young and relative unknowns, looking for the same sort of breakout that Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox earned from the original Transformers film over a decade ago.

Next: Transformers Spinoff Explores Bumblebee’s Life Without Optimus

Source: Omega Underground

  • Bumblebee Release Date: 2018-12-21