Michael Bay kind of resented the "Transformers" toys at first. They made him go to Transformers School at Hasbro before he took on the project. Going through that experience actually made more of a "Transformers" fan out of him.
"I thought I was going to learn how to fold up robots, but I met with the CEO and I went through the whole Transformer lore," said Bay. "I’ve been offered a lot of superhero movies before and nothing’s really appealed to me and in the room, because I’ve been such a fan of Japanese anime, it just hit me that if I make this really real it could be something very new and different."
Learning about the fanfare as an adult might have helped Bay make a "Transformers" movie to please all crowds. "I quickly became probably one of the bigger Transformer fans in the world, and I tried to make this movie for non Transformer fans. I wanted it to be a little bit more, if you could say, adult, so I’m sure I’m going to get flack for ‘You made an edgy movie on a toy, how is that going to affect kids?’"
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"I know there are Transformers fans that are 40 years old," Bay continued. "I actually think that because I wasn’t a fan I think makes it more accessible to other people. Megatron was a gun, and I’m like, ‘I don’t get that.’"
Bay did have enough nostalgia for his own career that he allowed an extra to make a reference to his own ouvre. During the chaos in one scene, a young boy shouts, "This is way cooler than Armageddon."
"That’s just me — I’m like, ‘Okay, this kid is so funny.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, you’ve got say this.’ He’s just funny. I’ll often add jokes along the way. A perfect example, because I will always hire actors that have a good improv skills, like Nic Cage in The Rock, there was really nothing funny in The Rock script. That was all through improv, just trying to work with the guys and try to make it funny."
Queue up in line now — "Transformers" comes to a megaplex near you next Tuesday, July 3.
