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Isn't it the producer's job to question things like the design of the robots and the screenplay?

Also, I love how Bay is all "my vision" when he didn't even want to make it originally because it was a "silly toy movie".

My favorite: Bay telling us what makes his blood "curl."

The word is "curdles," Poindexter.

Get your Sylvan Learning Center ass back to MTV with the rest of the philistines.

When Michael Bay makes a film akin to NATURAL BORN KILLERS then he will have the right to talk about 'vision' and 'credit,' but he hasn't earned that right as of yet.

I am not defending Don Murphy here but they did a hell of a lot to hype this flick to the New Media columnists and as fans we didn't buy it, thinking he was a modern day, deranged PT Barnum, but the guy was right, the movie will be huge.

From what I understand the property was with De Santo and Murphy initially, everyone else who jumped in later (Bay, Dreamworks etc) did so based on those two men's passion for the property.

It would have been interesting to see what the 'ecological disaster' angle of the De Santo TRANSFORMERS script was like and how it differed from Bay's version.

De Santo and Murphy helped sell this flick to the 'net (AICN, Poland, Wells etc) and its denizens and that is not an easy sell.

Add some other facts from Mr.EDouglas:

http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/2007/07/the_battle_cry_who_transforms.php

[Bay's comments were picked up on Don Murphy's message board with coments made by writer Roberto Orci saying how he and co-writer Alex Kurtzman had gone to Murphy and DeSanto for advice and opinion without Bay's knowledge. (Bay's original post and the resulting comments have since been removed, presumably at the request of Spielberg or the studio.)

Man, she's like five days late on that "story"... it went up last Friday and it was pulled from his site on Sunday as was a couple responses on Don Murphy's site. I had posted links to both in one of the Transformers threads below and es, I did write and post an editorial on Monday. I'm used to being ahead on this stuff from traditional media, but now I'm ahead of the bloggers, too? :)

Yawn

Not to hijack this fascinating discussion, but TF did another $20 mill on thurs bringing it to about $85 before the weekend. That's a only 30% drop from Wed. According to boxofficeprophets.com that's a fairly small dropoff for this sort of blockbuster release. It is a sign that the movie will have some legs, and $150 seems well within range by Sun.

To be more specific, the quote is:

"A decline under 40% would indicate this is a juggernaut unfolding."

http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=10119

BOP is prone to fanboy hyperbole over logic and reason. they're saying it will make $81.8 million over the weekend based on how much it made so far and that's not happening.

I wrote to the Finke and asked her to take it down because, well, everyone else had and she sent me this email, quoted verbatim, asking for a bribe. Sickening that she gets called a journalist in some quarters

oh don, i feel your pain. but it stays up.
besides, i've been overly nice to transformers, haven't i?
i'll owe you one in the future, promise. or better yet, give me something
dishy on bay and we'll call it even. lol

Ed, how do you know that's not happening?

I'm surprised Drudge isn't linking to her lately since they seem to play the same game.

It's even better - I told her that just because it was google cached doesn't mean she needed to run a story. She replied

you asked, i answered. end of story. and how
fitting that today, on independence day, i'm upholding the first amendment.

So since she put that out there, I've asked Brendon Connelly to write me a missive discussing his interaction with the Finke and the first amendment. Probably be here in a few hours. Wait for it it is a doozy.

I say let it rest. Bay made it public himself, and all of this Nikki hooha is just mud in the water.

"It is a sign that the movie will have some legs, and $150 seems well within range by Sun."

Or, it could be a sign that more people are seeing it before the weekend, thus resulting in less people seeing it Fri-Sun. Wasn't that a big worry of the Monday release? It "blowing it's wad" as somebody said throughout the week resulting in a few mid-week records but then not having any gas left in the tank, to use another metaphor.

But, I do think the Monday release would have killed it... if the word of mouth wasn't so good. And it appears the WOM is more than good.

Still. We'll see when the weekend comes (well, it's already here for me, but I still have to work sat and sun)

Let's not slag off Box Office Prophets. They're one of the few sites that actually makes this sort of stuff entertaining as opposed to BUSINESS ONLY.

The numbers for TRANSFORMERS thus far ARE impressive...but the midweek holiday is confusing for guessing weekend numbers. On one hand, school is out for summer and some parents had these last few days off...so they took their kids to the movie. And...the holiday was smack dab in the middle of the week and those without childcare who had to work probably shipped their kids to the movies.

But, it's frigging HOT everywhere...vacations, swimming, sports...unless major repeat business happens over the weekend (and it could) I see almost a drop. But like I said, it's confusing and I'm really no good at guessing numbers.

Tofu

Whatever confusion Michael had, that's fine.
Michael took it down. Jeff Wells had the class not to run with it when I asked him. So did others.

But here is someone that wins journalism awards and champions the first amendment.

You need to know what she did to the webmaster of www.filmick.co.uk Brendon Connelly. If you want to skip the post fine, but it's a doozy.

Does anybody in this country even know anymore what's in the first amendment? Somehow "free speech" has turned into "freedom to shit on you without consequence."

The good "new" stuff is in here behind the Transformers magazine cover. It's interesting what they believed they were almost getting away with.
http://www.cameraguild.com/

Wow. Massive amounts and massive egos collide. Welcome to Hollywood. I am SHOCKED! SHOCKED! I say.
Me detects more than a little insecurity under Bay's bluster.
I applaud your self-restraint, Don at being able to deal with that man without going postal. I guess the mental image of the bed made out of hundred dollar bills helped. I hope you got a lot of back-end points on this project-but guessing how you flogged this picture, I'm pretty sure you did.
Me, I'm glad I took the family to a $5.25 matinee :)

OMG you're still talking about this???
asks my wife

i would have thought everyone would have learned by now. the only way to avoid scandal is to pretend it doesn't exist.

don, addressing nikke, who admittedly gets off on helping stir the shit, just further gives her reason to run with the story and act as though she broke it.

on a different train of thought...

what i find funny is everyone taking credit for Transformers. Credit for the film's success is obviously shared between a number of people, but let's be honest here.

It was a massively successful toy line that made hasbro billions decades before anyone decided to give it a movie makeover.

So let's give credit to whoever created the entire Transformers concept in the first place.

Then let's give a little bit to Don for trumpeting the value of making into a feature film. Obviously, he was spot on, even when everyone told him he was batshit crazy.

What possible percentage of credit should i give Bay? I think any 'creative' juice goes to ILM. Bay's only gift to the movie was not totally destroying it, even though by my estimation, he did his best with his trademark garbage.

To recap:

Credit goes to....

1.The guys who created the concept of Transformers
2.Don Murphy for seeing the potential of a feature based on the property

Long, long drop

Everybody else

If the effects are such an integral part of people's enjoyment of the film/success etc., then surely by the same logic you should put #1 or #2 as George Lucas for creating ILM...

Kambei, no.

Because the effects were based on the original concept and design by whoever created the Transformers in the first place. They just monkeyed with the design and made them a cinematic reality.

Though, without the original concept and creation, they had nothing to tinker with in the first place.

I mean, at best, the transformers movie is nothing more than a spin on the original concept. it's like they did anything new here.

Nikki Finke and First Amendment Rights? What a fucking joke.

Check this out (I'm sure most of you have seen this little exchange) concerning Gawker's Jesse Oxfeld quote:

http://gawker.com/news/nikki-finke/correction-nikki-finke-is-not-crazy-184254.php

Oxfeld graciously did his best to appease her but she didn't give a rat's arse about *his* first amendment rights when she kept hammering him for an apology in a public forum.

Reading about how much trouble it was shooting, these guys ever hear of High-Def video? Seriously, check out the extras in Once Upon A Time in Mexico. HD is great for low light and adding digital effects later. Plus you don't have the limitations of film can sizes, you can keep shooting and maybe even IMPROV.

Good lord, Mr. Murphy - step back, take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy your success. It'll add a few years to your life.

Film still looks better than HD, and I kind of dread the idea of a Michael Bay improvisation - maybe repeating the 'crazy Black Grandma' joke a third time with Tyrese's granny?

jeff,

who gets tired of that joke?

don't you know black grandmas be trippin?

"Sickening that she gets called a journalist in some quarters"

Wow... totally agree with you there. Even though I had the original text from the Bay blog post, once it got taken down, there was no way I was going to publish it verbatim, though I didn't see a problem referencing it to be able to comment.

Don Murphy: When you have a moment, would you please e-mail me at cadavra@sbcglobal.net? I want to ask you something privately that is not exactly business-related. Thanks.

be careful Cadavara. That's jeff's territory you're treading on.

He can have it.

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