You will like it more or less – if you have read me here, you will know that I am a staunch defender of his outbursts – but what is undeniable is that the ‘Transformers’ film saga is one of the most profitable of all time. With its six installments released to date, valued at around $1 billion, the struggle between Decepticons and Autobots has amassed a whopping 4,800 million —and there are still several lengths in the pipeline scheduled for 2023 and 2024—.
Three is a crowd
A good part of the blame for the success of ‘Transformers’ lies with the master of destruction Michael Bay, signer of the first five live-action films released to date. But this could have been very different if the director had listened to Steven Spielberg, executive producer of the saga, who He suggested that he close his robotic journey once he finished with the trilogy.
This is how Bay told it during a promotional interview for ‘Ambulance’, his next filmwith the medium Unilad UK.
“I did too many. Steven Spielberg said, ‘stop after the third,’ and I told him I’d stop. The studio begged me to do a fourth, and it also made a billion. And then I told them I wouldn’t do any more. And they begged again . I should have stopped, but they were fun to shoot.”
Although he has claimed to have had a good time filming the saga, Bay has admitted that the first part gave him a bit of vertigo due to the technological uncertainty that surrounded its groundbreaking visual effects.
“It was technology that we didn’t know if it would work, and then it turned out to be very successful. It was the first time that digital effects were so reflective, so they charted a new course. It was a fun experience. It made over 700 million, that’s lots of tickets and lots of viewers watching it.
But beware, because, according to the filmmaker, Steven Spielberg’s advice was not limited to the number of tapes he had to shoot. As he told GQ magazine, King Midas of Hollywood was the one who suggested that he fire Megan Fox after the actress publicly criticized his demanding style when directing. Spielberg he denied it laterbut the change of Fox by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley became effective in ‘The dark side of the moon’.
“Steven said, ‘Fire her right now.’ It didn’t hurt, because I know it was just Megan being herself. Megan loves to be flattered, and she does it the wrong way. I’m sorry, Megan. I’m sorry I made you work 12 hours. I’m sorry I made you come on time. Not all movies aren’t soft and cuddly.”