Bumblebee’s Travis Knight to helm Mark Wahlberg’s The Six Billion Dollar Man

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Warner Bros. must be hoping that the third time is the charm. The feature-film adaptation of The Six Million Dollar Man has been in development for quite some time, with both Peter Berg (MILE 22) and Damian Szifron (WILD TALES) set to helm the film before they departed. Now, Variety has reported that Travis Knight (BUMBLEBEE) is slated to direct Mark Wahlberg in THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN.

THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN will find Mark Wahlberg starring as Steve Austin, a military officer who is given bionic body parts and extraordinary abilities by a secret government program after a horrific accident nearly ends his life. After the success of BUMBLEBEE, Travis Knight was reportedly sought by several studios before he finally settled on THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN. Last we heard, Warner Bros. had pushed the release of the film back to June 5, 2020 while they searched for a new director. It remains to be seen whether they'll stick to this release date.

Although BUMBLEBEE didn't bring in quite the box-office bucks that the other films in the TRANSFORMERS franchise have, it managed to score very positive reviews and Paramount is already said to be developing a sequel. While speaking with THR last week, Travis Knight spoke about whether he has any plans for a BUMBLEBEE sequel.

I viewed the film as a self-contained thing. Every film that I’ve ever done, I’ve viewed it as, “This is a statement about this. These are these characters. This is our point of view and on this story.” Once it’s done, it’s done. So, I tend to not think about sequels or where the story goes beyond that in terms of actually producing something. However, every single thing I’ve done, these characters, they reside in your mind and imagination. You live and breathe them for so long. You always imagine their lives and their stories outside of the confines of the pictures. What happened in their life before? What happens in their life after? You actually create these stories even though they never make it into the movie. So, in my mind, I have all kinds of ideas for where Charlie goes from here; where Bumblebee goes from here; where Optimus Prime goes from here. In my mind I’ve already made those movies on some level. Like you say, if the stars align, would I tell another story in this universe? I mean, I love these characters, so it’d be a thrill to be able to tell a different kind of story in this universe. Time will tell.

BUMBLEBEE is now available on Digital HD/DVD/Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD.