It starred Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris.
His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), was an action movie set on Alcatraz Island, and in the San Francisco Bay area. Bay's success led to a strong partnership and friendship with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film was completed for $19 million and grossed a remarkable $141 million at the box office in the summer of 1995. Shooting in Miami was a good experience for Bay, who would later own a home in the city and spend a great deal of time there. The action film proved to be a break-out role for Smith, who was segueing from television to films at that time. The film was shot in Miami in 1994 and starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. īay's success in music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, Bad Boys. He directed Goodby, Silverstein & Partners "Got Milk?" advertisement campaign for the California Milk Processors Board in 1993, which also won a Grand Prix Clio Award for Commercial of the Year. His first national commercial was for the Red Cross, which won a Clio Award in 1992. His 90-second World War II–inspired Coca-Cola advertisement was picked up by Capitol Records. Michael Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos, two weeks after finishing his post-graduate degree. For his graduate work, he attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he also studied film. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and a favorite student of film historian Jeanine Basinger.
He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986, majoring in both English and Film. His opinion changed after seeing it in the theater and he was so impressed by the experience that he decided to become a film director. Careerīay got his start in the film industry interning with George Lucas when he was 15, filing the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he thought was going to be terrible. The fire department was called and he was grounded. As a boy, he attached some firecrackers to a toy train and filmed the ensuing fiery disaster with his mother's 8 millimeter camera. īay often traces his interest in action films back to an incident during his childhood. He attended the exclusive Crossroads School, in Santa Monica, California. His cousin, Susan Bay, is the widow of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy (whom he eventually cast as the voice actor for Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon). He was raised by his adoptive parents Harriet, a bookstore owner and child psychiatrist, and Jim, a CPA. While The Rock (1996), Transformers (2007), 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016), and Ambulance (2022) received moderately positive reviews, most of his other films, particularly the four Transformers sequels, have been received negatively by critics. ĭespite his commercial success at the box office, Bay's work is generally held in low esteem by film critics. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house which has remade horror films, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Amityville Horror (2005), The Hitcher (2007), Friday the 13th (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute, a.k.a.
The films he has produced and directed, which include Armageddon (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001) and the Transformers film series (2007–present), have grossed over US$7.8 billion worldwide, making him one of the most commercially successful directors in history.
He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of special effects, including frequent depictions of explosions. Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer.