Hollywood enfant terrible
Michael Bay
has had some choice words with the actors and producers he’s worked with in the past, but this
time’s he publicly locking horns with his biggest foe yet: the major Hollywood
studio. Paramount’s and Dreamworks’ decision to switch exclusively to
HD DVD isn’t just going to lose Blu-Ray users, but also possibly Bay himself.
Up until
yesterday, Paramount and Dreamworks had supported both the HD DVD and Blu-Ray
formats. The studios’ announcement of going cold turkey on Blu Ray has prompted
Bay to fire off a
message
board post (delicately titled "Paramount pisses me off!") in which the
director writes:
"I want
people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people
who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No
Transformers 2 for me!"
With a
Hollywood strike looming for next year and now having apparently lost its
director, looks like the journey to Transformers 2 is going to be (sorry) more than
meets the eye.
EDIT: Looks like we, and Bay, spoke too soon. Bay recanted on his personal blog, having underestimated the appeal of HD DVD. Here’s his post:
“Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-Ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-Ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted – nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you – I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.
As a director, I’m all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.
So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks!
So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!”
Source:
IGN
