TRANSFORMERS 6-26-07

Michael Bay brings giant robots to life in 'Transformers' and makes Josh Duhamel macho, plus casting news
June 26, 2007
After fielding the first few questions at his "Transformers" press conference, director Michael Bay began to wear a slight smile. Bay has rarely been the darling of critics or journalists, and it's not only because some of his previous films ("Armageddon," "Bad Boys," "Pearl Harbor") were designed for the masses but also because there's been a continuously growing legend about his arrogant antics on set. Although Bay must have expected to defend his choices and methods on "Transformers" during the press conference, his smile seemed to indicate that he realized the critics actually liked his movie.
Conceived as a Hasbro toy line in 1984, Transformers became well known to children as a result of the animated TV series of the same name. The intensely popular franchise even spawned an animated feature titled "Transformers: The Movie" in 1986. However, fans always dreamed of seeing adversaries Optimus Prime and Megatron battle it out in a live-action movie. More than 20 years after the toy line's debut, Hasbro has teamed up with DreamWorks and producer Steven Spielberg to make that dream come true. And who, other than Spielberg himself, was best able to bring the robots to life than Michael Bay? The filmmaker recalls getting a phone call from Spielberg telling him "Transformers" was essentially a story about a boy who buys his first car only to find out it's a living robot.
"I hung up and said, 'Thank you, I'm not doing that stupid, silly toy movie,'" Bay says. "But [the more] I thought about it, the hook was great because that's such a launching ground from a young adult into manhood or womanhood. I kept having this image of this kid trying to hide robots from his parents by his house. So, to me that was the whole charm of it."
Obviously not initially a fan of the toys, Bay went to what he describes as "Transformers school" at Hasbro, after which he says, "I quickly became probably one of the bigger Transformer fans in the world, and I tried to make this movie for non-Transformer fans."
What makes "Transformers" more entertaining than this past May's triumvirate of disappointing blockbusters aren't the dramatic scenes performed by flesh-and-blood actors Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox but those with the robots themselves. The special effects by Industrial Light and Magic are pure eye candy and the battles provide one crowd-pleasing moment after another. Still, Bay admits it took a long time to get there.
"Let me tell you, these robots didn't come out good at first. It was not all peaches and cream at ILM," Bay says. "There were a lot of angry phone calls like, 'We have to do better. We have to do better.' They thought they were settling on something and I was like, 'Nope. This is unacceptable.' I just kept pushing them and pushing them and pushing them."
Fans will no doubt be thrilled Bay didn't settle, but he admits the constant refrain of complaints about this change or that modification affected him.
"I did get a lot of flak from fans on the 'Net, like, 'Michael Bay, you've wrecked my childhood,'" he says. "The death threats [freaked me out], but I would listen to fans on the 'Net -- I really would. I would hear their comments, but I'm still going to make my movie and I'll still put flames on Optimus."
Ironically, if Bay doesn't direct the expected sequel, the always-unsatisfied hard-core fans will now be angry he's moved on. As always, it seems Michael Bay can only win at the box office.