Michael Bay speaks out against HD DVD-only choice

FROM VARIETY: Transformers director recants after early bashing

By Daniel Frankel of Variety -- Video Business, 8/22/2007

AUG. 22 | FROM VARIETY: The decision by Paramount Home Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation to exclusively back HD DVD may have garnered the studios financial incentives valued at a reported $150 million, but it seems to have irked at least one high-profile filmmaker in the process.

"No Transformers 2 for me!" wrote helmer Michael Bay in a post on his personal Web forum (headline: "Paramount pisses me off!") that was widely circulated Tuesday. "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks!"

By the end of the day, however, Bay had softened his stance after speaking to Par brass and taken down his original post, replacing it with the following:

"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 a.m. posts mind you -- I overreacted. 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 first-hand 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!"

Read the full story on Variety.com.

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