Bay Comments on Misinformation Campaign

Michael Bay back in April claimed he would initiate a disinformation campaign to confuse Transfans about the movie. This morning he posted a remark on that campaign on his message boards.

The only full script for the movie exist with me and the original writer's. A select few crew members have read parts, some of the leads have read full scripts - but the number is under ten. One person from Paramount, three from Dreamworks.

We have leaked several scripts, some treatments and various scenes that are used to mislead the internet. We have mocked up wrong schedules and call sheets with fake scenes on them. When shooting scenes we don't refer to character names and use wrong faces on the poles representing different robots that are going to be placed in - It's a lot of work but seems to have worked out because no one knows the story of the movie besides Sam going to college.

Bay

Michael Bay must think Tranfans are fools and easily tricked and I don't appreciate it. The reality is Bay's disinformation is to simply claim there is disinformation campaign.

Let's look at his so-called examples. Number of leaked scripts? Zero. If they are out there then people are keeping them close to the vest. Number of leaked treatments? One, way back in October of last year that involved a Transformer invasion of Las Vegas. The treatment was a fun read but also would have been incredibly expensive to produce. Few took it as the real thing.

Number of scenes leaked? Zero, goes back to the script idea. To leak a scene means leaking a portion of a script which hasn't occurred. Now Bay could be saying he is shooting fake scenes but I call bullshit on that. The man takes too much pride in shooting films on time, on budget, and using the money wisely. Filming fake scenes smacks in the face of all three. As for the fake head on poles thing, I have yet to read a single description online that even referred to them so if he is using them, no one but the cast and crew seems to be aware of it.

Number of schedules in the wild? Zero. Technically the call sheets could be one but at this point all "schedule" information has consisted of either information given to the press of the locations they are shooting at or "guess what I found!" moments. There has been some incorrect information in regards to shooting in New York but I think that was human error rather then Bay's work. But for giggles I will give him credit for it. One "fake" location out of dozens of accurate ones makes for pretty crappy use of misinformation.

As for the call sheets, so far only one has been leaked from Bethlehem. I think the only "fake" part of the sheet is many of the Transformers name such as Wheelie, R8, Stinger, etc which are probably placeholder names. I don't think Jetfire and Arcee are placeholders but who knows for sure. The rest of the information is legitimate.

The information contained in the call sheets has been verified by multiple witnesses in mulitple locations and with dozens of pictures. The vehicles have been spotted not only in Bethlehem but since then in Philadelphia and now San Pedro. Are we supposed to believe Bay would waste money transporting cars across the country (most of which are expensive concept cars) if they are not actually being used in the film? Please.

The sheets correctly identified the next stage of the schedule when production moved to the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center and accurately describes seens that witnesses report seeing filmed. A scene was scheduled with a Blackbird and what do you know...a scene was filmed with a Blackbird. Cast members, such as Ramon Rodriguez, where identified as part of the cast via the sheet and he has since been seen in Philly shooting with Megan Fox. Did Bay pay the expense of flying an actor and film him if he isn't even in the film? Yeah right. Nothing about those call sheets have been contradicted and most has been verified in pictures, videos and from multiple different witnesses.

About the only thing accurate in Bay's statement is his comment on the story. Despite the many pictures and set reports over the last two months, we still have no clear idea on what the story is about and have not verified exactly what Transformers are or are not in the film (except Soundwave). All we know, thanks to direct comments from Bay, Orci and Kurtzman, is the story has Sam going to college away from home when Transformer stuff occurs. Even with the call sheets we still don't have any useful information to figure out what the story is really about, just a whole lot of guesses.

What Bay should be posting about is not his nonexistent misinformation but pride in his cast and crew. Despite hundreds of people being involved in production, many public sets, and hundreds of pictures taken of the cars and cast, we still don't know that much about the film. Just look at the cheat sheet, its littered with "rumor" notes and best guesses based on multiple car appearances, set sightings, and probability that concept car equals Transformer.

I take pride in the fact that this blog has been a source of much of the information out there about Transformers 2 thanks to site readers that have provided information and pictures over the last two months but to my knowledge none of that information has come from the cast and crew.

If there is an unofficial slogan of this website, it is "speculation is most of the fun." A genuine misinformation campaign with fake scenes, scripts and treatments would be a whole lot of fun to pick apart and discuss. I would invite such an effort. If we have one fact about this movie, it is that Bay's misinformation campaign simple does not exist.

Instead of patting himself on the back for a job not done, Michael Bay should be patting his cast and crew on the back for a job well done in maintaining the secrecy of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.

What do you think? Discuss in the comments but please keep it civil and PG rated.