The Transformers writer’s room being assembled by Akiva Goldsman to expand the Paramount franchise into a cinematic universe has come under fire already for a lack of diversity, but today brings news that two female screenwriters have joined the burgeoning team. Christina Hodson and Lindsey Beer have joined the group that will hatch ideas for Transformers sequels, prequels and spinoffs before breaking into smaller groups to write them.
Both scribes are making waves in Hollywood. Hodson is penning an update of The Fugitive for Warner Bros. and also wrote The Eden Project, which Sony is developing, and thriller Shut In, which just wrapped production with Naomi Watts in the lead role and Farren Blackburn directing. She has also dabbled in television, writing CBS’ Unforgettable and working on an untitled pilot for FX.
Beer, meanwhile, is tackling a Wizard of Oz reimagining for Warner Bros., and she’s busy with features in multiple genres in various stages of development, including a Disney action adventure called Dig, a remake of Short Circuit and an R-rated sci-fi comedy called How to Nail an Alien that’s set up at Atlas Entertainment. Of note: Beer studied neuroscience and the intersection of technology and society at Stanford, meaning that she’ll be extremely capable of coming up with legit-sounding science gobbledygook for a franchise that thrives on it.
Hodson and Beer join a writer’s room that already includes Ant-Man scribes Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Iron Man writing duo Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Pacific Rim 2 writer Zak Penn and Lost‘s Jeff Pinkner. Goldsman will be overseeing all of them as they brainstorm ideas for Transformers features in hopes of having a direct sequel ready for director Michael Bay to helm as soon as he’s done with Benghazi drama 13 Hours, and more ideas ready to go after that. Already pitched: an origin tale set on Cybertron that Barrer and Ferrari are involved with, and a Bumblebee spinoff.
It will be interesting to see which projects Hodson and Beer end up working on – Transformers has always been a boys club, so a lot of people are going to be watching where these two talented scribes will be placed with curiosity about whether their involvement will be felt in any way in the emerging Transformers universe (possibly/hopefully one end result could be multi-dimensional female characters who have more to do than run around with heaving bosoms, maybe even a female-led movie).