With Transformers spinoff Bumblebee having grossed nearly $500 million worldwide, director Travis Knight is suddenly a man in demand. And for his next project, he’ll be teaming up with a former Transformers alumni; Knight will direct Mark Wahlberg in The Six Billion Dollar Man for Warner Bros.
The film is based on the classic ABC series The Six Million Dollar Man that aired between 1973 and 1978. It starred Lee Majors as Steve Austin, a former astronaut-turned-secret agent with superhuman strength thanks to some bionic implants. The show was based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin.
The script has been written by Bill Dubuque and has been in development for a while. Argentinian filmmaker Damián Szifron (Wild Tales) was attached to direct at one point, before exiting once the project moved to Warner Bros. Knight reportedly had multiple studios vying for his next directing gig, so he chose this over plenty of other others.
Maybe it was the opportunity to work with Wahlberg, or perhaps he has an interesting take on updating the classic 70s series. While Bumblebee was set in the 1980s, expected The Six Billion Dollar Man to be contemporary-based. They have adjusted the title for inflation, after all.
The film has been in the works for a while, so there’s no guarantee that Knight’s hiring finally signals some movement. There’s currently no official start date, but expect some movement on the film shortly.
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