Michael Bay to Blow Up Intimate Character Study

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 20, 2009

Michael Bay to make film with big fucking character development.

We might finally be able to judge Michael Bay as a director. After years of delivering giant explosions, even bigger fucking robots and plots that have to do more with getting characters into car chases than exploring who those characters are – Bay wants to direct a small character study based off of the real-life story of some body-building juicers that get mixed up in kidnapping and extortion.

According to those crazy bastards over at /film, Bay is interested in directing Pain & Gain (which may not be the final title), a film that promises to have some explosive character development and pulse-pounding inter-personal dramatics.

From the tag sub-header of the original news article:

They were local bodybuilders with a penchant for steroids, strippers and quick cash. And they became expert in the use of a peculiar motivational tool: torture.

Sounds awesome to me. Although, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the words “bodybuilders” and “penchant” in the same sentence before.

There’s obviously nothing wrong with Bay’s current corpus of work – he’s made his mark with a particular style (as opposed to substance), and he’s made a lot of film fans happy doing it. More power to him. And more power to him for heading out into terrain where his abilities as a visual artist won’t be bolstered by several hundred pounds of C4. Hopefully, he’ll be able to pull of a dynamite flick without being able to hide behind CGI and explosions.

It would be exciting to see what the man is made of.

What do you think? Can Bay pull something like this off?


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  • Yes because he is Michael Bay and that was a Michael Bay human does in his own life.
  • Honestly, if he wants to, I bet he could. You can't go that far without knowing how to tell a story. The fact that he chooses spectacle over substance isn't because he's an idiot, it's more likely that he's idiotic like a fox.
  • I'm actually willing to give it a shot. If it fails, he'll just go back to doing what he's good at: blowing shit up.
  • Chille
    I actually like Michael Bay. Sure his films are dumb and riddled with cliches but hes got so much talent with a camera, especially the action scenes. He's actually got more talent than many directors out there
  • "Style vs substance" is such a bullshit argument against a director. Against a Writer/Director, it's completely valid. Against a director, not so much. How much substance do you want from giant talking robots? Do you want to see two cops struggling to find their lot in life or do you want to see two cops blow some fucking shit up? Bay normally picks projects that are written for stylish directors. Sure, he has a lot of input, but he's not writing the scripts. Criticizing him for a lack of substance in his huge epic summer blockbuster movies is like criticizing McDonalds over a lack of subtlety in their cheddar cheese.

    Bay Rules.
  • BARF
    Michael Bay? Character study? Blow some shit up bitch.
  • nicky_cavella
    just like bay said he might be lying to us like he did with the transformers and given us false updates.....this can a be a lie....
  • I am interested to see how this turns out. On one hand, Bay does have a long list of completed projects, but on the other, nothing he's done could ever be considered subtle.
  • BoB
    "There’s obviously nothing wrong with Bay’s current corpus of work - he’s made his mark with a particular style..."

    Have you seen his movies? What style, exactly, are you talking about? The fact that he can/try to rip-off David Fincher at times or basically make the same movies over again and not hold one shot without the camera cutting to something irrelevant so he can add slow motion to it.
  • Ade
    "We need to talk" (spoken during a car chase with EXPLOSIONS)
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