Today we see one of the most anticipated movies of the summer opening across the nation, one that should be another huge blockbuster for Michael Bay (you can probably figure out what I'm talking about from the title). Despite all the pervasive buzz and hype for the movie, a power struggle of sorts between the filmmakers has been going on behind the scenes that spilled out onto the internet and the media in the last few weeks. As someone who doesn't know any of the players personally, I'm trying hard not to take sides on this, but I've been discussing this pretty heavily with some of my esteemed colleagues. Everyone seems to be taking sides on who's right and who is telling the truth, often depending on their own personal allegiances or biases.
The main players in this debate are director Michael Bay and three of the movie's five main producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy, all of whom are seemingly taking premature credit for the success of the movie and/or fingerpointing about who did or didn't do things to help make it happen. Sadly, a lot of this has come from the internet due to the access being given to those involved in making the movie, so as soon as one producer says something in the media, another one is ready to dispute or refute their claims.
It came to a head last week when Michael Bay posted something on his blog condemning DeSanto and Murphy for things they've said to the press, stemming from a New York Times profile on DeSanto, which mentioned the feud between the film's other producers. Bay's comments were picked up on Don Murphy's message board with coments made by writer Roberto Orci saying how he and co-writer Alex Kurtzman had gone to Murphy and DeSanto for advice and opinion without Bay's knowledge. (Bay's original post and the resulting comments have since been removed, presumably at the request of Spielberg or the studio.)
I've never met or dealt with Tom DeSanto, but he seems like a decent enough guy, one who really understands and appreciates fandom and the internet. He's even going to moderate a special panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con with all the webmasters of the various fan-run entertainment sites, which should be quite an achievement in itself. I don't have much to say about his partner Don Murphy that hasn't been said far better by others (including that Times article), but he's not exactly the type of person you want to get into an argument with, either in Email or on a message board (whether it be his or others'). Granted, I've been banned from enough message boards for speaking out and defending myself that I can understand where he's coming from, though I've also been on the receiving end of Murphy and his collective's pointy sticks when they misunderstood something in my recent interview with Lorenzo di Bonaventura. I've interviewed Lorenzo a number of times, and he's very much a studio producer in every sense of the word, but he surprised me with two excellent adaptations of two of my favorite properties, Constantine (one of my favorite comic characters) and Shooter (based on one of my favorite novels).
What everyone should be able to agree on is that movies are a collaborative effort and there are very few filmmakers who can make a movie by doing everything on their own. (Primer's Shane Caruth may be the one exception, but where is he these days?) That's especially true with a big movie like this one, and it's doubtful that Transformers would have happened if not for all of those involved with it. Most people who've seen the movie (including myself), feel that however this movie came about, the end result isn't so bad. Some would say that they've made a very good movie and others have said that they've made the best action movie of the summer. When you watch the movie, it's pretty obvious that there were many different factions involved in getting it to that point. Michael Bay's vision is at the forefront, but you can see things that are obviously Spielberg and things that only true fans of the Transformers, like Tom and Don, could have brought to the table, such as getting Peter Cullen to reprise the voice of Optimus Prime. (Not to mention all of the work by ILM making the robots look so cool.) So what did Lorenzo do? Well, put it this way, movies this big don't make themselves and you need a producer who knows how to manage money and people and get things happening. Spielberg has proven he can do this, but he obviously respected Di Bonaventura's strengths in production to have him play such a large part in the movie. Of course, I'm assuming a lot of this since I wasn't on set, but I've talked with enough filmmakers and producers to know how things work, and I doubt a movie like this could have been made for $150 million without someone like Di Bonaventura on board.
There are huge expectations for Transformers this week to become one of the summer's big blockbusters, so it's kind of strange that all this dirty laundry is being aired so close to its U.S. release. Personally, I think it behooves the filmmakers of this movie to bury their pointy knives and band together to support and celebrate the fact that they got this movie made, got it done in time for release despite a heavy amount of CG FX work and got it done so cheaply. The movie's going to make a lot of money, and it seems childish that everyone's trying to take credit for it in every possible public forum, when it's obviously such a collaborative group effort.
This seems like the worst time for this stuff to be going on, because it sours what should be a fun and entertaining summer flick. These arguments can always be revived in December if by some chance Transformers is up for a Best Picture Oscar. Since that probably won't happen, maybe everyone involved needs to get some perspective by remembering that they've made a movie... not discovered a cure for cancer.
