Michael Bay is no stranger to massive franchises. He built the Transformers movies into a live-action property at Paramount which became a phenomenon through their installments as the writer and director established a massive new world on the big screen. Bay, who is currently gearing up to release his new Universal film Ambulance, would want to do the same with a comic book property, if given the opportunity. In fact, it’s the only way the director would want to take a crack at such a franchise, in the first place.ย
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“It’s not that I’m not interested in Marvel,” Bay told ComicBook.com, echoing previous sentiments from 2017. “As Ridley Scott says, the most complicated thing for a director and the most fun thing for a director is to build the world.” That’s where Bay finds the fun for himself as a filmmaker, as he has displayed through his titles like Bad Boys, Transformers, Pain & Gain, The Island, Armageddon, and more. What do each of those have in common? They establish a world and the characters within it, not unlike Ambulance which is set in a world like our own and centered around two fictional characters on an intense car chase throughout Los Angeles.
“I’m not the guy to go into Lucas’ Star Wars and do Star Wars Five,” Bay said. “That’s not me. I’m not the one to come into Iron Man Seven. I’m not the one to do Batman 10. I want to do my own thing. I would love to do a superhero thing but I want to do it on my own terms and create my own world.”
Bay recently had a comment make a few headlines when he criticized the computerized effects featured in Ambulance, a film which also offers an abundance of practical efforts. “So, here’s the thing, CG, and if it’s not done well, everyone understands lighting,” Bay said. “They understand lighting because they see it every day, they live with it, and they go, ‘Well, something looks screwed up.’” To clarify, Bay explained, “There’s two shots that I don’t like. So there you go.” After his work in the Transformers world, it should come as no surprise that visual effects-heavy films like many comic book movies are not unappealing to the director who has been innovative with them in the past.
Are you excited for Bay’s Ambulance film with Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Eiza Gonzalez? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Ambulance hits theaters April 8.