Just a minor update to the Paramount "unpleasantness." It turns out not everyone there is all too happy about the studio cutting a deal to screw over consumers.
Steven Speilberg's spokesperson has come out and said that Spielberg is a fan of Blu-ray, and that films he directed would be specifically excluded from the HD DVD exclusivity deal. The matches the director's previous actions, preventing Universal from releasing Spielberg films on HD DVD, then helping Sony with a Blu-ray special edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Transformers director Michael Bay then posted on his website earlier today that he was quite upset by Paramount's decision:
"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me."
Whether or not Bay actually holds the hard line on this, or whether Paramount chooses to recant their previous statements, remains to be seen.
Finally, from an "insider" within the Paramount marketing department:
"We have a lot of clauses which would allow us to release certain films on Blu-ray during [the next 18 months]... I can tell you we have received many calls today from various talent and certain directors voicing their displeasure with this decision. We even had VP's of other studios calling in from what I hear. I have never seen this type of atmosphere in the office. In a way we were on damage control throughout the day."
So, to clarify. The studio's biggest producers and directors are upset. Personnel within the studio are confused and running "damage control." And all over a contract that seems to leave a number of options for releasing Blu-ray discs anyway, though the exact details remain unclear at this point.
UPDATE: 8/22/07 - 1:30am
Well, it looks as though Michael Bay's check for his portion of the $150 million payout cleared. He made another post to his blog last evening:
"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 am posts mind you - I over reacted. 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 firsthand people upset about a corporate decision. So today I saw 300 on HD, it rocks! So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!
Michael Bay"
I hope he got a decent cut... Spielberg's obviously wasn't enough.
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