Travis Knight is set to direct ‘Six Billion Dollar Man’.
The 45-year-old filmmaker will sit in the director’s chair for the upcoming sci-fi project according to Variety, following his recent success at the helm of ‘Transformers’ franchise production ‘Bumblebee’ last year.
‘Six Billion Dollar Man’ currently has Mark Wahlberg in the starring role as Colonel Steve Austin, a downed pilot who is saved by an operation that makes him part machine.
The movie is based on the classic 1970s sci-fi TV show of the same name, and has Bill Dubuque penning the screenplay.
Prior to Travis’ hiring, the long-gestating project was once in development at The Weinstein Company before moving to Warner Bros. in 2017, and was due to have Damian Szifron as the director and co-writer before he backed out almost a year ago.
Mel Gibson was once rumoured to be taking over as the director, before Travis was confirmed this week.
Sue Kroll, Bill Gerber and Steve Levinson will produce.
For Travis, the project comes after he made his live-action feature film debut with ‘Bumblebee’ last year, which pulled in $466 million at the global box office.
Before taking on the ‘Transformers’ movie, he had worked on stop-motion animation movies through Laika – the studio he founded – including ‘Coraline’, ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’, and the new release ‘Missing Link’.
Meanwhile, Travis recently said he already has ideas for a ‘Bumblebee’ sequel "if the world wants more".
He said: "When I get to the end of one of my movies, I always imagine what’s next for the characters. And so, in my mind, I’ve got all these scenarios and adventures that play out, both with Charlie and with Bee and everyone else. We’ll see if the world wants more. Maybe we’ll explore some of those things."