The Energon Pub

Director Michael Bay has posted at his official forum - Shoot For The Edit and commented on Transformers lead actor Shia Labeouf and his thought on leaving the Transformers franchise:

"I read so many of these articles Shia speaks in, and the quotes are so wonderfully untrue. He is an actor that makes his own reality and that's what I love about him. To think for a second I would leave my own set to have someone shoot and finish the scene would never - ever happen. He is special, and a very talented actor. It has been an amazing five years together. I'm kind of sad to leave the franchise.

Michael"

You can view the orginal post here.


Seibertron, Ultimate Transformers Resource!

I have to say, Michael's vision carried out through his team, had transformers looking and doing things, and being so complicated... definitely not what I had envisioned, but I think it has been quite a feat to create what he has, and try to appease fans, and also keep it interesting/exciting enough to get interest from the general public. Certainly accomplished number 2. More people have become interested in Transformers because of the movies, people who have no previous ties to the brand. Transformers is much more mainstream culture now, and I imagine DOTM will break the records that ROTF set.

Michael and Shia have both made their marks in TF history and helped to move the brand forward to a level above what it was when they started this venture.

Sounds like he's saying Shia makes crap up...

He flat out calls Shia a liar then goes on to say that he loves him for it. Strange man.

tigertracks 24 wrote: Certainly accomplished number 2.

yes, I got a distinct whiff of "number 2" from that as well.

craggy wrote:

tigertracks 24 wrote: Certainly accomplished number 2.

yes, I got a distinct whiff of "number 2" from that as well.

tigertracks 24 wrote:I have to say, Michael's vision carried out through his team, had transformers looking and doing things, and being so complicated... definitely not what I had envisioned, but I think it has been quite a feat to create what he has, and try to appease fans, and also keep it interesting/exciting enough to get interest from the general public. Certainly accomplished number 2. More people have become interested in Transformers because of the movies, people who have no previous ties to the brand. Transformers is much more mainstream culture now, and I imagine DOTM will break the records that ROTF set.

Michael and Shia have both made their marks in TF history and helped to move the brand forward to a level above what it was when they started this venture.

That is absolutely 100% true . I mean me for instance...Before the movie existed on 2007 I've never EVER heard of something called "Transformers".

But once the movie was premiered on the theater,I started reading TF comics from G1 to the current one,which is DOTM,started watching TF cartoons,learning about the old(G1) TFs that I didnt know existed before,started collecting TF toys and of course joining Seibertron xP.

Seriously to those who keep dissing M.Bay and the TF movie are illogical...I mean like really? The man helped reincarnate the TF line to the current teenagers(Who I can assure you most of them wont watch G1 EVER even if they heard of it) and kids and because of him the TF fans have probably doubled or tripled or maybe more.So all I can say is...Stop dissing/hating...

PS : I was born in the year 1994(17),and I can assure you I NEVER heard anything about TF until like 4 years ago.

I am seriously glad this crap is going to be over after this movie. Micheal Bay and Shia LeBarf can go do other stuff that i could care less about. Lets start thinking about a reboot. Get some real talent into this and make a set of movies that are actually going to be worth watching.

Thank you, Micheal Bay for placing my favorite IP back into the limelight and causing revenue so that bigger and better things could happen! But in the same sentence, "**** you, Michael Bay for creating a set of **** movies that bashed a beloved IP from my childhood."

i know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but let's not be disrespectful. i thank bay and everyone so much for bringing back transformers. what would we have if the movies hadn't been created? im glad it brought so many more people into the transformers world.

Good f*beep* riddance!

Michael Bay got me back into Transformers. Love G1, HATED everything ever since except the movies. I also didn't start collecting until the first movie.

It's nice to see Bay's films aren't completely rejected by hardcore TF fans, but his demographic obviously skews younger than the "trukk not munky" generation who grew up with G1.

Regardless, what articles or interviews is Bay responding to here?
Has Shia been accusing Bay of hiring second-unit directors?
And who could expect any director to oversee the filming of EVERY SHOT on a film of this complexity?
Films have been made with multiple units shooting simultaneously for almost as long as the industry existed. It happens on any major studio film, and Bay's crazy to think he can convince us otherwise...

...if, in fact, that's what he's suggesting.

Without the proper context, however, it's hard to understand what he's talking about, especially given how contradictory his statements seem to be.

Some links to published comments from Shia would go a long way to clarify the situation.

chrisc4 wrote:i know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but let's not be disrespectful. i thank bay and everyone so much for bringing back transformers. what would we have if the movies hadn't been created? im glad it brought so many more people into the transformers world.

^ More or less. Hes done great bringing everything back and creating an interest in the mainstream for the IP. To that, hes been a godsend. There has been alot of great games, toys, and cartoons now that have all come out now because of his movies. Hell, he even brought Peter Cullen back into the fold.

As far as the story, acting, and art style to his movies, well....all i see is red when i go to post my opinions on'm.

And im not a 'trukk, not monkey' fan. I like alot of the continuities (if that was directed at me).

Trikeboy wrote:Strange man.

And don't you forget it!

I just find it funny that the guy get so much hate for making a live action TF, which is obviously impossible to cater to everyone's liking, and we have people crying for reboots and crap, yet the same people forget that TF is pretty much a collection of different takes on the same concept. For example I thought Superlink was sh*t, but you don't see me cry about it; I just skipped the whole thing and look for another TF series that I like, simple.

Hate the movies? Skip them and go watch TF: prime or something.
Want a reboot? But TF's stories are mostly made of reboots in the first place
Movies characters are not similar to their G1 counterparts? But it's not G1, so that's not a valid reason.
Michael Bay raped your childhood? Well, it still can't beat what Kissplayers had done with "Legion"

TF as a brand was pretty silent and surviving on collectors support and japanese TF series, until the movies happened and now it thrives; new toys are made, new concepts explored. Before the movies, how many of you would've though that a TF toy as complex as ROTF prime could even exist? The best we got were the Binaltechs and Masterpiece.

That's it, just my 2 cents on the ridiculous hate issues.

I honestly find this level of comtempt for the man who helped revitalize the franchise astounding. Were the films everything they could have been? No. Were they perfect? Far from it. However despite this, even with how much of a base breaker RotF was among the core fans the film series has given Transformers a shot of popularity it's never seen before. You wish Bay had never directed the films? You may as well wish the Transformers franchise would have slowly withered away and died.

might want to re-word the title a bit, when i read it i thought bay was leaving too. "sad to see him leave" will fix that cause im sure i wont be the only one.

guarayakha wrote:
TF as a brand was pretty silent and surviving on collectors support and japanese TF series, until the movies happened and now it thrives; new toys are made, new concepts explored. Before the movies, how many of you would've though that a TF toy as complex as ROTF prime could even exist? The best we got were the Binaltechs and Masterpiece.

That's it, just my 2 cents on the ridiculous hate issues.

Um, no, that is completely wrong. R.I.D./The Unicron Trilogy was huge for kids in the states. Yeah the show was anime of dubious quality, but it was a joint effort between Hasbro and Takara. And, again, for kids it was huge, and brought attention back to the brand back in 01. Hence the interest in doing a live action film in the first place. The Transformers as a brand were never silent in the states, each incarnation has been incredibly popular with it's intended fan base, as well as the collectors. That's why collector aimed lines, such as the G1 reissues and Alternators happened in the states. The line still proved to be popular to fans as well as the kids.

Yeah, I agree that the films made them even more mainstream. But to say that the brand was silent and surviving on collector support is totally ignorant and totally wrong. If that were the case, the brand wouldn't be where it's at, much to the chagrin of some collectors, who wish to think we were the sole reason the brand survived as long as it did. Hell, Transformers may not even be around anymore if that were the case, as a collective, even now, I don't think we have the financial resources to sustain the franchise, then or now.

As far as Bay. Loved the first movie, hated the second one, holding out hope DOTM will be decent. But good riddance to him. Bay is a horrible douche canoe who could care less about the Transformers as a brand or characters. Watch the special features on both films dvd's. It was all about how much Bay loves the army and himself, if he coulda got away with not having the Transformers in these films at all, he'd have done it. He's a full of himself director who's mediocre at best.

Capt.Failure wrote:I honestly find this level of comtempt for the man who helped revitalize the franchise astounding. Were the films everything they could have been? No. Were they perfect? Far from it. However despite this, even with how much of a base breaker RotF was among the core fans the film series has given Transformers a shot of popularity it's never seen before. You wish Bay had never directed the films? You may as well wish the Transformers franchise would have slowly withered away and died.

LOL. Transformers survived for 20 years prior to Bay's films. Hasbro woulda kept it going, Bay's films weren't the "saving the Transformers from total oblivion" factor that some would like to think they are.

D-340 wrote:

Capt.Failure wrote:I honestly find this level of comtempt for the man who helped revitalize the franchise astounding. Were the films everything they could have been? No. Were they perfect? Far from it. However despite this, even with how much of a base breaker RotF was among the core fans the film series has given Transformers a shot of popularity it's never seen before. You wish Bay had never directed the films? You may as well wish the Transformers franchise would have slowly withered away and died.

LOL. Transformers survived for 20 years prior to Bay's films. Hasbro woulda kept it going, Bay's films weren't the "saving the Transformers from total oblivion" factor that some would like to think they are.

furthermore, bay had nowt to do with the production being green lit.

he was director for hire on first movie.

it was a life long wish to see this movie or a deep felt desire to rekindle a childhood franchise.

He did the best he could, but what his motives are i dont know, opportunity to blow sh1t up and collect a paycheque maybe, but it wasnt a fandom of TF, and why, cos he said it himself.

http://movies.about.com/od/transformers ... b61707.htm

they arent the movies we want, but they are the movie we got, so jsut have to suck it up. for now

Why not go nag Randall NG and Dr. SMOOV to go make the reboot then? Ha ha. You can't say they'd ever dis the franchise or do it for the money. Look what they're already giving us for free.


As for me, I'm not sad this is the end of this era. I loved the run, and I'm now ready for it to end, and just happy it happened. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a serious collection - then I might start with finishing the whole movie lines. Until then, I'll keep trying to make costumes out of whatever I can get my paws on. The sooner, the better, because I need another costume to run around in. Or should I say I know who I want to be and I want to run around as him already! XD

Have fun everybody. Enjoy the last of the bay-verse films, for whatever it turns out to be.

Be a positive force in fandom!!!~

D-340 wrote:

Capt.Failure wrote:I honestly find this level of comtempt for the man who helped revitalize the franchise astounding. Were the films everything they could have been? No. Were they perfect? Far from it. However despite this, even with how much of a base breaker RotF was among the core fans the film series has given Transformers a shot of popularity it's never seen before. You wish Bay had never directed the films? You may as well wish the Transformers franchise would have slowly withered away and died.

LOL. Transformers survived for 20 years prior to Bay's films. Hasbro woulda kept it going, Bay's films weren't the "saving the Transformers from total oblivion" factor that some would like to think they are.

You can appeal to the core audience, but that won't keep a franchise alive. The fact Hasbro had to reach out to Takara to even get a show produced says alot of were Transformers was headed at the time.

Also last I checked we as a fandom did nothing to earn Bay's respect. Protests, death threats, breaking into his house? If I was trying to make a film and the fans of the series did stuff like that I would neither respect them or cater to them. I may be a Transformers fan, but I also realize the people in this fanbase are pretty horrible examples of human beings: petty, childish, hateful, spiteful, and ungreatful for every consession Hasbro has made. I'd wager to say only Twilight fans are worse than us, and I only say that because I friggin' hate Twilight. I'm surprised Bay stuck with it for three films, paycheck or not.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm going to miss him. I've actually gained a newfound respect for the guy.

Heh. I will undoubtedly enjoy this last film as a Topless Robot FAQ. The one written for the second film was the best part of ROTF:

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/06/bon ... 2_faqs.php

As far as a reboot goes- I can't wait. I haven't enjoyed a single aspect of the film series- nor have I bought a single toy, nor have I payed to see a single film.

I have bought a heck of a lot of the Classics, Animated, and WFC toys though.

When the reboot comes, I imagine it will be a joint Disney/Marvel offer, as Disney would love to get the Transformers in their basket, and Marvel has such a long creative history with the franchise.

Maybe some of the Pixar writers could even come and write a decent story with, I dunno, a few Robot Characters who actually have personality and depth. I know that sounds like an impossible task, but somehow I think they could manage.

I said it once and I'll say it again.No one hates Transformers as much as the fans do.No matter who writes it,directs it,acts most fans will claim to hate it and complain about it.Facts are no matter what there will certain elements in a TF main stream movie.Since the movie will be aimed at families and children since it is a movie to sell toys.There will never be a movie rated higher than PG-13,there will always be humans and campy comedy.I'm honestly surprised we got movies as good as we did that are more adult.These movies could of been so bad .I dont think some of you think about that.The same ones talking crap about Bay today could be the same fans begging him back after the next film.Like him or hate him in the end he did what he tried to do.He made transformers look real and belivable on screen.The first time I saw Blackout Transform and blow the hell out of that military base blew my mind and still does.I hope they can convince him to come back and do another movie I can enjoy in two more years.Instead of waiting another 3-4 for a reboot that may not be as good and be aimed more towardss children.Less explosions and viloence maybe even end up having a theme like Armada did.It can be way worse than better in my opinion.