'Bumblebee' screenwriter Christina Hodson is shaping Hollywood's blockbuster future — and centering female stories

Film-mad “Bumblebee” screenwriter Christina Hodson returns on a couple of event to the topic of Linda Hamilton’s awesomeness in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” as we chat over tea and scones made out of scratch in her Los Angeles residence.

And who among the many Sarah Connor-worshiping devoted can blame her? Hodson’s lifelong love of movie changed into a profession when she took a leap and penned her first script simply seven years in the past: “In my heart,” she smiles, “I always wanted to write ‘T2.’”

The London native grew up a fanatic for motion motion pictures and sporting out her VHS assortment, gravitating towards the large explosions, bombastic set items, and epic feelings of American big-budget blockbusters — precisely the sort of motion pictures she’s now making her specialty as one of many thrilling new voices shaping Hollywood’s future.

In 2011 after switching tracks from a profession in growth to screenwriting, three of Hodson’s spec scripts made the Black Record. Inside just a few years she was employed to reboot “The Fugitive” for Warner Bros., which led to her working within the various “Transformers” author’s room assembled to spark new instructions for the Hasbro franchise.

Rising with the script for “Bumblebee,” an origin story that tracks the titular fan-favorite Autobot as he’s befriended by a teen named Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) within the Nineteen Eighties, Hodson is the primary lady to originate and write a movie within the $4.3-billion “Transformers” franchise.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the producer who has shepherded the property by way of 4 sequels and a prequel following 2007’s $709-million worldwide grosser “Transformers,” hopes “Bumblebee,” which opens Dec. 21, will inaugurate a brand new constellation of spinoffs.

“The audience was telling us that they wanted to go in-depth on a character,” he mentioned, explaining that Bumblebee was a hero followers already felt an emotional connection to. “But we were also interested in changing the rhythm of the franchise.”

Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie and Bumblebee in “Bumblebee.”

(Paramount Photos)

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The result's a scaled-down, extra intimate “Transformers” motion pic a few lady and her robotic, that includes the sort of defiantly unbiased heroine who hardly ever will get to guide massive studio blockbusters. (Kelly Fremon Craig, whose offbeat 2016 highschool comedy “The Edge of Seventeen” was instrumental in getting Steinfeld on producers’ radar in response to Di Bonaventura, additionally contributed scripting duties after being thought of to direct.)

Maybe much more intriguing for the comedian e-book hardcore: Hodson is prepping for a January manufacturing begin on the Harley Quinn “Birds of Prey” spinoff starring Margot Robbie, which she wrote and Cathy Yan will direct. And she or he’s presently writing a standalone “Batgirl” film, additionally for Warner Bros. and DC.

“Mostly, I want my nieces to grow up in a world where the girls and women they see on screen feel as varied and complicated as they are,” Hodson mentioned of her strategy to writing characters.

Her rise has made Hodson not solely one of the vital in-demand screenwriters on the town, however among the many small however rising ranks of robust feminine voices working in a multibillion-dollar blockbuster enterprise traditionally dominated by males.

“Particularly as women, we feel like we need permission to be writing the bigger movies — and it is hard breaking into that space,” Hodson mentioned. “It’s lovely that we all know each other, but I would love it if there were so many of us that we can’t know each other.”

In talking with Hodson prematurely of “Bumblebee”’s vacation launch, it shortly turned obvious that she will present one thing all one of the best blockbuster motion pictures want: a singular viewpoint.

How did your love for motion pictures — and the sort of large style motion motion pictures you’re writing now — first begin?

I used to be at all times obsessive about motion pictures. I simply beloved Hollywood motion pictures. In a single 12 months once I was 15 or 16, I wrote down each film I watched and it was one thing like 750 motion pictures. I've two sisters, each older, and we'd watch some motion pictures time and again, like “The Lost Boys.” [On “Bumblebee”] we really shot one of many days in Santa Cruz proper on the pier. Once I was writing it I at all times imagined that. Once I came upon they had been capturing there I used to be like, “That’s my brain! You put my brain in the movie!”

What had been a few of your favourite movies rising up?

“Terminator 2” is one in every of my favourite motion pictures of all time. Ever. I really reference that film on a regular basis when folks ask me, “What do you want to write?” It’s every thing you could possibly presumably need! And it's so intimate. Even on the very finish and he’s like, “I know now why you cry” – how superb it's to ship such massive emotion in such a small line, such a small second? That’s what I need to do. I need to make massive motion pictures that additionally really feel actually intimate and have loads of coronary heart and emotion.

How did you discover your means into the “Transformers” universe?

I beloved the toys and as a child I watched the cartoons. I used to be robot-obsessed as a child and weirdly at all times thought I might sooner or later construct my very own robotic that may be alive and actual… [Steven] Spielberg mentioned in regards to the first [“Transformers”] that the factor he responded to was the straightforward idea of a boy and his automobile, which I completely beloved. I keep in mind the primary time I turned the ignition in my dad’s automobile, the sensation of bringing a giant hunk of steel to life — essentially the most magical feeling.

And that’s a sense you infused into “Bumblebee” with Charlie. Why was Hailee Steinfeld the fitting option to play a teenage gearhead nonetheless determining who she is?

We’re fortunate we received her as a result of it’s a difficult function; so typically we see women in movies who're “the mean girl” or “the tomboy” or “the artist,” and what I beloved about her and what I might relate to as a result of it’s who I used to be, is that she’s a little bit of every thing. I believe most children are. Most of us are a bizarre mishmash of every thing. We don’t completely know the place we slot in with one another and with ourselves and that was the stuff I used to be drawn to.

Margot Robbie firs portrayed Harley Quinn within the 2016 movie “Suicide Squad.” Manufacturing on the Harley Quinn spin-off begins in January.

(Clay Enos / Warner Bros. Leisure Inc.)

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What has it been like working carefully with Margot Robbie on the “Birds of Prey” venture?

This, I can say: [Robbie] is a tremendous producer. She’s so devoted, cares a lot, she is in it and works so laborious — seems by way of each selection, reads by way of each draft, and has super-smart notes. I'm all about discovering good folks you consider in as human beings in addition to being good inventive companions and producers, as a result of it’s an funding — writing these motion pictures takes it out of you. I’m additionally simply excited that [director Cathy Yan] is a girl and he or she’s Asian. That’s a massive deal.

Diving into comics lore, what was it about Harley Quinn that spoke to you?

I simply fell in love with Harley. She makes me chortle, however she additionally makes me cry…. She’s received such emotional depth that's fully contrasted by this gentle, superficial, enjoyable exterior. Even within the comics when she is at her finest, she’s doing one thing dangerous — and when she’s at her worst she’s doing one thing good. And that makes her so attention-grabbing and a lot extra actual, as a result of that’s what individuals are like in actual life. Only a few individuals are simply purely heroic or purely villainous, and he or she is this excellent stability of every thing.

How a lot are you able to share about engaged on “Batgirl”?

Principally nothing, apart from I’m actually excited — as a result of she’s Batgirl! She’s all of the issues I like about Batman. I’ve at all times been extra all in favour of people than supernatural issues and monsters. Persons are able to profound good, but in addition profound evil. The issues that folks will do whenever you again them right into a nook are superb, terrifying, and fantastic on the similar time, and it attracts out these primal issues in us — good and dangerous. And that, to me, is so fascinating.

Each venture you’ve written to this point has been female-driven. Is it a precedence so that you can middle feminine leads in your tales?

Once I grew up and I used to be watching all of those Hollywood motion pictures, all the heroes had been straight white males — at all times. I needed to be the archaeologist digging up the large factor operating away from the boulder. I needed to have these massive adventures and I by no means received to see it. Actually as a mixed-race child, I by no means received to see it… so I can’t assist however need to repair that. I can’t assist however need all of my results in be feminine.

Producing can also be a spotlight for you, and you have already got just a few initiatives within the works. Why is that subsequent step so essential?

I need extra management over the issues that I do… I need to take management of tales and form issues, and put a highlight on the issues I care about. Barbara Hillary is the 87-year-old who turned (on the age of 75!) the primary black lady to go the North Pole, and who's presently prepping her subsequent expedition to Northern Mongolia in March. I’m serving to her with fundraising and we're working with a author on her memoir, in addition to creating a characteristic movie, and a separate TV present about her early years. As well as, I’m additionally working with Matthew Baker to adapt one in every of his quick tales right into a characteristic. He'll write, I'll produce. He’s an extremely proficient creator who I do know will make a terrific screenwriter.

How a lot do you concentrate on the influence your characters might need on younger women and boys who haven’t historically seen themselves mirrored onscreen?

I hope it has an influence. I hope that women will watch [“Bumblebee”] and go, “I can be something that’s not one of these four boxes, I can be something in the middle!” and “I can have a big adventure.” It bums me out that it’s at all times the boy or the person that goes on the journey and has the story, and the lady is the one which comes alongside for the experience — in the event that they’re fortunate. I needed a lady behind the steering wheel, actually.