Guess this means he won’t be directing BB2 any time soon. ‘Bumblebee’ Director to Tackle ‘Six Billion Dollar Man’ Adaptation for WB, Mark Wahlberg (EXCLUSIVE)
Or, depending on when 6BDM shoots, Paramount could just wait till he's free and do BB2 after. Considering BB came out practically right on the heels of TLK, taking a break wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea. Of course, they've been trying to make 6BDM for what seems like ages, too (Kevin Smith was actually tapped to write it once), so who knows if it'll even actually happen this time.
I think they should do something different before BB 2. Maybe the next big movie they keep talking about. By the time they're done with that, Travis Knight should be available again.
They shouldn't do another big movie. They need to do a Bumblebee scale film again because if we are honest, it really was just scraping by with a minimum comfortable profit. Anything bigger is just asking for failure. The days of the big mindless blockbuster are coming to a close. Audiences want something of substance behind what they are seeing, that doesnt require endless text on online niche interest forums to try and explain what the film itself fails to convey.
It might not necessarily be a failure if they put more work into quality story and character development this time.
The question is if Paramount can even pull such a thing off. You had the whole writers room where they got a bunch of successful writers in one place, had multiple ideas pitched, and then after the collaboration was ended, the executives like Lorenzo simply minced them all up and cobbled together what ideas they liked most into a frankenstien plot that became TLK. Not to mention I dont think Paramount can even risk a failure of that magnitude again financially.
I won't doubt Kinght would do a good job but Mark Whalberg? TLK left a bad taste and seeing Whalberg again in a sci-fi style film may be a risky move. A better approach if they want another big movie is to steer away from sci fi.
I agree that's a serious concern. It seems pretty clear that Bumblebee was good because of Travis Knight. Under someone else, they could easily end up making the same mistakes again. I'm not sure I fully trust that Paramount has learned their lesson.
