John Ortiz joins Bumblebee movie

John Ortiz is set to star in ‘The Transformers’ spin-off movie ‘Bumblebee’.
The 49-year-old actor appeared in the 2017 monster movie ‘Kong: Skull Island’ and is now set to join the ‘Transformers’ franchise alongside Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena, Deadline reports.
The forthcoming film reportedly has a new release date of December 21, 2018, which will see it go up against Warner Bros.’ ‘Aquaman’.
Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Jorge Lendeborg, Ricardo Hoyos and Gracie Dzienny are also set to star in the motion picture, which kicked off production at the end of July.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Michael Bay – who directed the last five ‘Transformers’ films – will produce the movie, along with executive producers Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner, Mark Vahradian and Chris Brigham.
The motion picture will be written by Christina Hodson and directed by ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ filmmaker Travis Knight, which will be his live-action debut.
The film will be set in 1987 and sees Steinfeld play Charlie, a young woman preparing to turn 18 who finds Bumblebee battered and broken, but she soon discovers what it is capable of.
Di Bonaventura confirmed that the 20-year-old actress would play a major role in the motion picture.
He said: "We had decided to do this well before ‘The Last Knight’ had come out.
"Our feeling was that we wanted to give the audience a different experience. ‘Bumblebee’s designed to be a more intimate movie.
"What we’re trying to do is deliver, a love story may be too strong of a term, but it is a coming of age for ‘Bumblebee’ and our lead character, Hailee Steinfeld."