While the Transformers franchise hasn’t exactly inspired Mad Max: Fury Road-levels of female empowerment, that might all change as Deadline brings word that Christina Hodson and Lindsey Beer have been chosen by Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Paramount Pictures as the first female scribes to join the Transformers “writer’s room” that’s steering the course for sequels, prequels and spin-offs.
Hodson is a frequent Black List honoree who was recently chosen by Warner Bros. to pen their new screen version of The Fugitive and also wrote the upcoming Naomi Watts starrer Shut In. Beer, a science major at Stanford, has written original specs in the sci-fi and fantasy genre, including Dig which is set up at Disney as well as a new version of The Wizard of Oz at Warner Bros.
The Transformers franchise braintrust will be led by Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend, A Beautiful Mind), and includes “The Walking Dead” and “Invincible” creator Robert Kirkman, the Iron Man writing pair of Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, “Fringe” and “Lost” scribe Jeff Pinkner, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk‘s Zak Penn and Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari, who did production re-writes on Marvel’s upcoming Ant-Man.
One of the potential titles in development is Transformers One, a prequel film set on the planet Cybertron which was briefly seen in the first film of the series. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner also recently mentioned Bumblebee as the potential focus for a spinoff feature.
Last year, Paramount released the franchise’s fourth film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, starring Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor. When asked if he’d be back for a sequel, Wahlberg previously stated that he’s contracted for “a couple more.” It is also believed that Bay himself will return to helm Transformers 5 after he completes work on his Benghazi drama 13 Hours.
Age of Extinction grossed over $1 billion at the global box office with all four films combined grossing over $3.7 billion.
