BAY: "FOR (PARAMOUNT) TO DENY PEOPLE WHO HAVE BLU-RAY SUCKS!" ON SECOND THOUGHT, MAYBE NOT SO MUCH (VAR, DHD, THR)

By Nancy Vialatte

Paramount and DreamWorks Animation�s decision to exclusively back HD DVD may be good for the goose, but the gander had something to say about it yesterday. On his personal website, Michael Bay exclaimed, �No 'Transformers 2' for me!" under a headline that read: "Paramount pisses me off!" He continued, "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks!" However, the director backtracked later in the day�

Bay removed his original post and replaced it with: "Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no 'Transformers' Blu-ray and I drank the Kool-Aid hook, line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted -- nothing good ever comes out of early a.m. posts mind you -- I overreacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard� As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard first-hand people upset about a corporate decision.

He went on to say he had seen �300� on HD and �it rocks!� before finally capitulating that he �might be back on to do Transformers 2!"

Other directors have expressed a preference for Blu-ray, the format with which Par and DreamWorks officially cut ties Monday. Notable in the studios' announcement was fine printexempting Steven Spielberg's films from HD DVD exclusivity. (VAR)

"Steven is a supporter of Blu-ray, but he is not exclusive to either format," said DreamWorks marketing exec Marvin Levy, who has worked extensively with Spielberg in the past. Still, Levy confirmed that Spielberg has blessed Sony's 30th anniversary release of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on Blu-ray. (VAR)

In February, the HD DVD Promotions Group issued an apology for listing three of Spielberg's films as upcoming HD DVD releases.

Additional support for Blu-ray has come from Jerry Bruckheimer, says Variety, whose first two "Pirates of the Caribbean" installments have already been released in the format.

Notwithstanding the myriad allegiances, incentives and grudges that motivate Hollywood, consumer electronics analyst Richard Doherty says Blu-ray's larger disc capacity is the key reason for the technology's greater traction among filmmakers so far. (VAR)

"For directors who are always vexed by the question, 'How do I get this down to two hours?,' having that extra disc capacity creates a lot of peace of mind," said Doherty, who added that helmers covet those extra megabytes to deliver reams of extra linear footage in high-def.

HD DVD backers, meanwhile, continue to tout their format's superior ability to provide interactive applications. But studios also like it because the manufacturing costs are lower, according to Variety.

Concerning the Bay kerfuffle, Nikki Finke shares an email she received: "The most upsetting part of your story is the possibility that the future of home entertainment might hinge in any way on what Michael Bay says or does. Horrifying, even."