Michael Bay to Direct TMNT Reboot

[Vicky82]

April Fools







Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist,

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I fell for it, since April 1st is almost over where I live

[Powder]

I mean, he's already producing it, so, not a far stretch. You could do better, yo.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

New attempt with the Blue Door plot

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Powder

I mean, he's already producing it, so, not a far stretch. You could do better, yo.

This.

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[Vicky82]

Oh well, I keep forgetting he’s a producer as well.

[AquaParade]

On the positive side, I'm glad you chose a joke that would be a nightmare scenario, if it were to come true. Hearing "April Fool's!" after gives you a sigh of relief.

To me, that's more fun than "Hey everybody, Guillermo Del Toro and Henson Studios are collaborating on the new TMNT film, with a script by David Goyer! They're even consulting with Peter Laird! Isn't that great?? Just kidding! haha!" Sort of a dick move, if you ask me.

[The-Shredder]

You got me. I hope that it doesn't happen for real.

[snake]

Wow, that really got me.

[IndigoErth]

lol Good one, because it's very easy to believe.

Now don't you go jinxing us. lol

[Leo656]

I don't know. Given Bay's open disdain for the Transformers series before AND during their production, I honestly don't think he would ever "lower himself" to actually direct a TMNT movie.

I'd have to dig around but I know I have an interview in a magazine from before the first Transformers movie was made where he says something like "They're just stupid toys, who cares?", or at least to that effect. He only deigned to do them because he realized he could make a lot of things go "Boom". They TRIED to force TMNT into that mold with the last two movies and it just didn't work. TMNT stories are much smaller than Bay's typical fare.

I know he was extremely hands-on with the production of at least the first PD TMNT movie, to the point where he more or less "backseat directed" it, but I can't see him ever actually doing it himself unless he had a gun to his head. He openly hates this kind of thing. There's like no incentive at all for him to ever do it.

[Prowler]

So basically the property is in the hands of people who don't actually respect it and just view it as something stupid to sell to kids...

wow, what a shock.

[Leo656]

Well, to be fair, he said it about Transformers. Buuuuuuut, I think it's extremely safe to say that he holds TMNT in about as much "regard".

And yeah, we are absolutely living in The Darkest Timeline.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Well, to be fair, he said it about Transformers. Buuuuuuut, I think it's extremely safe to say that he holds TMNT in about as much "regard".

And yeah, we are absolutely living in The Darkest Timeline.

I didn't grow up with The Transformers so I didn't care about those movies. Whenever I see people online talking about them they always spam the gif where Megan Fox bends over to check on her car. I guess that's the most memorable part of the movie for most guys...

[Leo656]

I didn't really follow it as a kid myself, but I thought it was pretty goddamn terrible that someone whose entire "philosophy" about making the films was, "It's stupid sh*t for stupid people, they won't know, f*ck 'em" was put in charge of it. I wouldn't wish that on ANY franchise.

[TigerClaw]

Michael Bay technically did directed the previous TMNT movies. Even though he was a producer. He was pretty hands on with those movies. With the exception of Bumblebee. Which he had no input on.

[Leo656]

Which is pretty funny, because to this day, most apologists will angrily insist that he was "just" the producer and thus had no real input.

There are many levels of being a "producer", but they generally have a lot of clout since they're the ones paying for the movie(s). Some are more hands-on than others, but at the end of the day, what they say is what goes. Like the old Superman films; Richard Donner (and Dick Lester) were the directors but they were infamously beholden to whatever Alex and Ilya Salkind wanted them to do. Conversely, Jon Peters was relatively hands-off with the 1989 Batman film, but that was because Tim Burton had built himself such a grand reputation that the studio didn't want to get in his way too much. But IF he had said to Tim, "Yeah, we really want Robin in this", for example, Burton would have had to accommodate him even if he didn't want to. And that kind of did happen, they just didn't have time to shoot it so it didn't go through.

The people who wrote and directed the first PD TMNT film have repeatedly and publicly said that the entire movie was redone according to Bay's whims at least once, so yeah, he was essentially "backseat directing" it even though he "just" had a producer credit. Happens more than people think. It infuriates me when people pull the "He wasn't the director, though!" card because it exposes that they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

[Wildcat]

Is this the interview?

Spoiler:

What first hooked you into wanting to direct Transformers?
It was a pitch that Steven [Spielberg] gave me. The story is true: I hung up [after we talked] and went ”I’m not doing that silly movie because it sounds like a toy movie.” I thought about it. And I said okay, you know, [I’ll] just go to Hasbro [for] this thing called Transformer School. I sat in this conference room and we went through the entire lore of Transformers. I like Japanese anime movies — I just think visually they’re really cool. There were some images in the room; I kept looking at one and I’m like, you know, if I make it real and edgy, it might be something really interesting. So I was a non-Transformer fan, but that’s good because I think it makes it more accessible for people that are non-Transformer fans. I kept having this image of a kid hiding his robots from his parents. To me that’s just a great kid fantasy. You have alien robots that are your friends. That’s charming to me. [Chuckles]

To be fair I do not think we should hold it against him for not being a Transformers fan. I can understand thinking of them as just toys if you’re not into it already.

Honestly the Transformers movies are pretty decently made. Some of the criticism is valid but they’re really not a horrible adaptation. (Have not seen Bumblebee).

Plus it’s obvious the movie designs have successfully established themselves into the fan base regardless of what people think of the films.

[IndigoErth]

It was a pitch that Steven [Spielberg] gave me.

Why... why... why did he pitch it to Michael Bay, of all people, instead of just keeping and taking on the project himself. (And then maybe moved on to doing the Turtles too.) Transformers were so close to being in the hands of greatness...

I would not have thought years ago that it was Spielberg's kind of fare, but after he did Ready Player One (which I guess technically already put our boys in a Spielberg film albeit for all of 15 seconds), eh, why not. That does kind of make me think he could handle it, and probably beyond a mentality of "just a toy movie." 'Ready' feels slightly superficial to me, but we already know he can handle depth in film making anyhow.

Being a fan isn't necessarily required, but for gods sake at least be passionate about film making itself, as Spielberg has always seemed, and care to do plenty of homework first, both in terms of lore and the fans of a thing. That Bay is just uninterested from the start and, while also making it likeable to the general public is fine, taking zero interest in the people who are MOST interested in giving you money, if it turns out well, is stupid. Like making a dog movie with cat lovers in mind and telling the dog people they can screw off...

If your first gut response is "nah," then pass it on to someone else, and not one of your lackeys.

[Leo656]

That's not the same interview but I've seen that one as well.

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Being a fan isn't necessarily required

I really think it should be.