Michael Bay

Director Michael Bay has never been a critics' favorite, but the thrashing he received for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was the worst of his eight-film career. Reviewers ridiculed the new sequel about battling robots as "beyond bad" (Rolling Stone), "bewildering" and "sloppy" (the Village Voice) and "a great grinding garbage disposal of a movie" (the Detroit News).

The opening of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is still two weeks away but Hollywood executives are already speculating that it could be the biggest movie of the summer. It could also yield one of the richest paydays ever for a director. Michael Bay agreed to forgo his normal upfront directing fee and cut of ticket sales in exchange for a bigger piece of total profits from all revenue sources once the studio, Paramount Pictures, recoups its costs.

A budget of about $25 million may not be much for director Michael Bay, maker of such mega-budget movies as "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor." But it's enough to get him launched on a new passion: creating a video game that matches the quality of a feature film. Bay's first-person shooter game is part of a larger strategy to transform Digital Domain Inc.

SHIA LaBEOUF'S first day on the "Transformers" set nearly killed him. "We had these police guard dogs," says director Michael Bay, standing in the shadow of a truck loaded with Furby toys and rigged with 50 explosive devices in downtown Los Angeles. "I didn't know how dangerous they could be." "Thank God I'm really fast," LaBeouf says. "He's telling me, 'Don't worry. It's safe.' Action gets called. Attack dogs run, run, run, run! First take goes great. Second take goes great."

Film director Michael Bay on Monday disputed defense testimony that he had snubbed Lana Clarkson shortly before her death, saying he had worked with the actress and would have remembered any encounter. "It never happened," he said in a telephone interview from Japan. "Wouldn't it be a big moment in one's life if you saw someone at a party, and two days later she was killed? Life's made of memories, and that would be a big memory."

Filmmaker Michael Bay on Monday denied snubbing Lana Clarkson at a Hollywood party weeks before her death -- an incident the defense has suggested wounded the pride of the statuesque, blond actress so deeply, it helped push her to suicide. Bay's testimony came as Phil Spector's murder trial headed into the final lap with the prosecution presenting its last three rebuttal witnesses.

Michael Bay is lean, walks with purpose and carries his chin and shoulders at an imperious tilt, and on a recent afternoon at his work compound in Santa Monica it was easy to envision him as some proud matador; Bay, like those bullfighters in Barcelona, thinks of himself as a mayhem artist in the crowd-pleasing business.

Michael BAY loves to play softball and went 4-for-4 on a recent weeknight. As the game progressed, though, Bay felt a sharp tightness across his chest. Was the 40-year-old director having a heart attack? Had he pulled a muscle? Or was he simply panicking over "The Island"? Having made some of Hollywood's biggest summer blockbusters, including "Armageddon" and "The Rock," Bay is accustomed to last-minute jitters. Yet with "The Island," he had cause for a real anxiety attack.

Be careful what you wish for, it might ruin the movie you're in. Lincoln Six-Echo and Jordan Two-Delta are cloistered clones desperate to breathe the sweet air of freedom. But once they make good on their escape, "The Island" collapses like a punctured balloon. Of course, given that "The Island" is directed by world-class noisemaker Michael Bay, make that a very loud punctured balloon.

Anticipating that the heat would be on in Hollywood this weekend, "The Island" director Michael Bay slipped away -- to sweltering Arizona. "I didn't hear the numbers all weekend," he said. "I relaxed, called my agent Sunday and said, 'Give me the bad news.' " When he heard the film finished in fourth place with $12.4 million, it was clear: "It's a debacle, it's my worst opening weekend ever," Bay said.