Michael Bay slams Paramount over marketing of 'Transformers 2'

Not enough buzz being built, not enough cash being tossed around, and not nearly enough fawning from the MTV Movie Awards. How could Paramount Pictures' marketing team possibly let this happen to Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen?
  Filmmaker and notorious hothead Michael Bay tapped out a poison e-mail to studio bigwigs last month saying he was shocked at the lame non-zeitgeist-y promotion for his action sequel. Example: Not enough ads in the Los Angeles Times! (Note to Bay: No self-respecting 13-year-old boy, the bulls-eye of your demo, would be caught dead reading that pub.) Bay later did a 180 in another e-mail, saying execs at the studio brought their "A game" to the flick's marketing. Seems he can no longer ignore the Hasbro-toy-based film's anticipated monster opening. Despite a tepid 38 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Transformers 2 could rack up a five-day $175 million opening. According to Fandango, Tuesday midnight shows are selling out all over the country, and multiplexes are adding 4 a.m. shows to meet demand. (The pre-dawn scheduling is because the movie's two and a half hours long).
  Fanboys don't care about snipes from critics in the U.K. who deemed it "a lumbering idiot of a movie" and "at once loud and boring, like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan." Or my personal favorite: "Even if it were a more tolerable 90 minutes, it would still sum up everything that is most tedious, crass and despicable about modern Hollywood."
  Now, that has event written all over it.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley