You have to be feeling pretty good about your career when you’re willing to throw Michael Bay under the bus. When I spoke to the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen writers at the press day for the film, they were sort of subtle in their buck passing (check that out here), but now they’ve essentially come out and said that the Jar Jar Twins are in fact offensive.
Talking to the boys at Film School Rejects, Kurtzman had this to say:
It’s really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it.I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie.
Click here to read the rest of the interview.
You have to wonder why these guys didn’t say anything earlier. Were they just shut out of the project once it got underway? Were they too busy on other projects? Were they not sure Star Trek would be a phenomenon and thus afraid to speak up?
And that raises the second question of how did no one else speak up? It’s amazing that these characters made it all the way through to the final release without people standing up to Bay. Then again, this is Hollywood and he’s Michael Bay, so it’s not that surprising. There are no real heroes out here.