Michael Bay: Lashes out at Transformers promotion

Michael Bay: Lashes out at Transformers promotion

American film director Michael Bay, who is best known for making large-budget action films, has criticised the marketing efforts of the Paramount Pictures behind the "Transformers" sequel.

In a memo sent to Paramount Pictures last month and published on Sunday by celebrity gossip site TMZ, the director complained that there was no buzz surrounding "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". He also called the film's US print campaign an "abject failure".

Michael Bay wrote, "Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different. There is no anticipation. Remember back to 'Spider-Man 2', it was everywhere. I cannot figure if this is a cash issue with your company? Is there some clever idea why we are not spending? I'm not sure. I'm sure though the movie will do fine, but not to your internal expectations because right now we are fooling ourselves by being cocky".

But in a second e-mail sent to Paramount on 6th June, Michael Bay compared Paramount to a family and thanked the executives for "busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers".

When asked, a Paramount spokeswoman said only that the e-mail "clearly speaks to a differing stance than the former". She declined to comment anything more.