In honor of the latest example of Bay's cinematic genius, Twitter spent Wednesday offering up evidence of the director's more heroic qualities, inspired by Fake Michael Bay himself:

justinmilam: Michael Bay once made an explosion so big it never went out, we now call it the sun

ashwinpande: Michael Bay wears special glasses which help him see the real world exploding in CGI and dollar signs all the time.

scriptdreric: Before sex, Michael Bay always says in his best Sean Connery voice, "Welcome to the Rock."

lucascarlisle: Michael Bay makes the best ribs because his BBQ only has one setting - slow motion.

Spidey004: Michael Bay makes approximately $175 million on every one of his bowel movements (which smell a little bit like popcorn).

BobCervantes: For his morning workout, Michael Bay blows up buildings and runs away from the explosions.

mroberts940: Michael Bay lost his virginity before his dad did.

mrbs: Michael Bay was preceeded down the birth canal by a dove in slow motion. And followed by a column of flame.

eddidit: The real reason there are so many tornadoes in the Midwest is because Michael Bay is allergic to cats.

Aimee_B_Loved: Michael Bay has 2 speeds: Slow motion and on fire.

Obvious jokes? Yes. Cheap humor? You betcha. But admit it: Somewhere, you're as convinced as I am that the real Michael Bay is sitting back, loving the attention.

Michael Bay Facts [Twitter]

Mars' has been forcing its candy-covered cartoon faces into our favorite movies for years, and by Cybertron, I've had enough of it. I already had to withstand years of being force-fed the idea that a green chocolate creature could be sexy and now they've gone and burned this creepy image of M&M Bay into my brain. That chocolate smirk has stubble - stubble! I'm all for sap, and I understand marketing but looking back on the large career of M&M movie tie-ins, I have to say they are truly the worst. Especially the Star Wars ads.

I make my case below with some of the most painful M&M movie ads of all times.

M&M Transformers

M&M Star Wars

M&M Wizard Of Oz

M&Ms Addams Family Commercial

I Blame M&Ms For Shrek

Tarzan

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen will be released in theaters June 24th.

Here's the list:

USA Today has a great picture of The Doctor, featured up top. I've always thought the smaller Decepticons were much scarier than the big bots, and the picture holds up this theory. Also you can see what Constructicons will be popping up in the movie to form the Devastator.

Yahoo has another look at the leaping Ravage, who thankfully won't be speaking:

"We wanted to stay true to the idea that Decepticons who take visual clues from beasts maintain that," says Orci. "It would be strange to have a talking jaguar, or a scorpion with an English accent."

Another interesting Transformer to watch is the crotchety old Jetfire, a former Decepticon who now fights for the good guys, and transforms into a SR-71 Blackbird. Bay describes him:

"He's old, craggy, forgetful ... doesn't work very well. Can't transform very well, because he's very geriatric. They get stuck with him a lot," Bay says. "He knows the plan of the bad guys, but he forgets all the good parts of the plan."

Arcee will indeed be Megan Fox's pink motorbike transformer, but there's no way she can out-cute Skids and Mudflap.

"Some of the junior Transformers are just dumb," Bay says with a laugh. "But it's great for kids because they're like the Little Engine That Could. They're (screw)-ups, but they get really heroic at the end."

That doesn't mean that Michael Bay was lying, mind you; he's not signed any deal to be involved with the third movie in the series, which also currently lacks the involvement of any stars or a writer. The announcement was made, according to insiders, in response to the quickly-filling 2011 calendar, which already has release dates for Spider-Man 4, Thor and Captain America because Marvel movies like to plan ahead. Making the announcement also shows the amount of faith that the studio has in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, which doesn't even open until June 24th this year... although it does provide the potential spoiler that at least one Transformer - and presumably, the Earth - will survive the second installment. Unless the third film is a prequel, of course...

'Transformers 3' gets a date [Variety]

Responding to an interview with Frank Welker - the voice of Megatron and Soundwave in the original cartoon, amongst others - Bay wrote

I think I'm going to pursue Frank on Soundwave.

Sudden stunningly-last-minute decision or well-orchestrated reveal to drive the fanboy faithful wild? Who knows, but at least the Michael Bay forum regulars got excited at the news:

Michael is the shiznit!! ask yourself this.. have u been BAYporized?

An Interview with Welker, and One Last Plea to Michael [Shoot For The Edit]

KABOOM. Okay, call me crazy — but Pearl Harbor much?

SHHIAAAAAA! He's back, and look at that adorable close-up! Eat it, Edward vampire boy, this is the real action hero that you can't get rid of.

So's that "other dude."

Hello, Ravage (at least, awesome robot that I believe is Ravage). You look like a robo-jungle cat creature to me, so I assume this is the Bay revision of Ravage. And if you couldn't tell by the rows of sharp pointy teeth, homebot is evil.

Hello dancing Transformer in the back, who do you think this is? Please tell me! Actually when you watch the video it looks like there are two of them and they look much smaller than the evil Audi R8 Decepticon.

"If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it." I smell engagement, to someone who knows if it's Sam or not, my guess is no. But then she'll leave the ring somewhere in a supremely dramatic fashion. Oh, and just because it's not a diamond doesn't mean it's not an engagement ring. Maybe it's made out of a dead piece of Jazz.

Good to see the Decepticons up and running again. I believe that this is the Audi R8 Decepticon, which many have accused of being Barricade. UPDATE: TFW2005 (the experts in Transformers) have also cast a vote that this may be Starscream....awesome

Oooh, hot torture-porn for Shia. Please rough him up a lot.

Who is this character? The new boy toy for Megan? Surely not.

Optimus Prime gets jacked in the face. His windshield is all busted and so is his face. Poor thing, it looks like he is taking a real beating from what seems to be the Devastator. Check out a better picture below of the massive size of this thing. UPDATE: there's been a lot of nerd talk about this and the fine fellas over at slashfilm and the folks at TFW2005 seem think it's a group of Constructicons that becomes Devastator. I'm in agreement.

The Devastator ladies and gentlemen. Holy hell, it makes Optimus look like a bitty baby bot. This movie is going to blow up the world.

We've been covering Bay's challenge to McG over robot supremacy in this summer's movies, but now he's finally made it known that yes, indeed, he would like to see Terminators fight the Transformers. Over on the Bay message boards Bay first kindly stated that he is very excited for Terminator Salvation.

I'm excited to see Terminator. I really love this whole franchise - and love the work of Bale.

but then the lion-haired director typed:

I would love to see my robots take on Terminators.

Let's hope McG accepts the challenge. It's clearly good-natured, so please make it so. A CG robo showdown would make our year. Or at least reply with a time and place like behind the old school yard, no knives, bare knuckle machine-on-machine fight.

[Michael Bay via Slashfilm]

The images come from the latest issue of British movie magazine Empire, which also features Optimus Prime on the cover, looking as bad-ass as a computer generated robot can manage (plus bigger versions of these images).

USA Today, meanwhile, talked to LeBeouf and Megan Fox about what it's like to run for cover while the Decepticons haven't been digitally added yet:

During one scene shooting in New Mexico, Fox and LaBeouf flee an ancient temple while villainous Decepticons stomp and crush their way through a village in pursuit.

LaBeouf and Fox are supposed to run toward the line of tanks and soldiers blasting guns at the giant robots above and behind them — to be added later as digital effects.

Racing into gunfire is instinctively daunting, but the actors say it's easy to find motivation when enormous gasoline bombs and packs of dynamite are sending up walls of flame and clouds of debris behind them.

"It makes you run fast because you are genuinely terrified," Fox says, looking sun-baked and weary. "And you still feel blanks. With that many guns going off, you don't really know."

It requires an act of faith in the troops who are aiming machine guns toward them... "Not that we don't trust (special effects coordinator James D.) Schwalm and the boys," [LeBeouf says]. "But even an eyelash flying at you at 700 miles an hour will cut you. You're running past them, and your clearance is only about 10 feet. These dudes are moving, and if one trips or falls and we run into the muzzle of a blank, that could blow your chest open or burn you."

The newspaper also describes the plot of Michael Bay's second helping of heavy metal bayhem: Apparently, LeBeouf's Sam has learned some secret about the origin of the Transformers (Presumably including "The Fallen" of the title) that leads to the Decepticons wanting to capture him instead of killing him, and the Autobots, yet again, looking for a fight.

Some of the most important newcomers are in the robot cast: Decepticons Soundwave, a fearsome communications expert, and Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers. And on the Autobots' side is Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is released June 26th, 2009.

Exclusive Transformers 2 Images [Empire Online], LaBeouf, Fox really under fire in 'Transformers 2' [USA Today]

The Transformers Live Action Movie Blog noted a report in the Antelope Valley Press that a crew for the movie were shooting as recently as the end of November in Edwards Air Force Base, despite Michael Bay's early November announcement that shooting had wrapped (although that announcement seemed to be contradicted within a week). They're not worried about the need for reshoots, however:

If a reshoot occurred, chances are its second unit work that didn't involve Bay or the principle cast and is simply being used to fill out shots that the editing process determined was needed.

I'm now imagining some poor extras running away from nothing, while a second unit director looks at his notes from Bay and yells "Now he's swiping at you! To your left! Scream!"

Meanwhile, speculation is growing about whether next week's release of The Day The Earth Stood Still will be accompanied by the first teaser trailer for the movie:

Considering that the trailer for Wolverine is debuting with TDTESS, it seems that there is an expectation that the movie will have a demographic that TF2 advertising would be aiming for. It’s also the last big budget popcorn movie of the year so last chance to get the most eyeballs aware that the sequel is coming before year end. After that, it seems to me that the next opportunity will not be until Watchmen in March.

If the trailer debuts with Keanu's next movie, expect it to be online Friday morning, even if it's only in shaky cam-phone version...

Reshoot, Trailer Rumors [Transformers Live Movie Blog]

The Transformers 2 Unofficial Movie Blog has a set report from filming November 1st and 2nd (two days after Bay's announcement that filming had wrapped) from one of the Stennis' crewmen:

It’s true, filming did take place this past week, all shooting was completed in a two day span, Saturday the 1st with the IMAX folks filming flight operations, and Sunday the 2nd with Michael Bay in action around the ship. Rumors flew around for weeks about what exactly was going to happen with the movie so it was really cool to see it all go down.
Saturday afternoon two transport planes arrived, the first carrying Shia Labeouf on the first and on the second were Michael Bay, Tyrese Gibson, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel. They arrived in costume (at least Tyrese and Josh did) and began working almost immediately. From what I saw, all of the filming with the cast was done in “closed” sets. The rest of the filming on the flight deck seemed to be flight operations, of which I was there and will hopefully make the final cut. We were told to just act natural and continue our jobs as normal, which is easy to do when you’ve actually got work to do. I did however try really hard to get into one shot in which I just walked back and forth for about 20 minutes.

So was Bay trying to hide the Stennis shoot, or was he just jumping the gun a bit with his announcement? We're guessing somewhere between the two, but there's always the unlikely third option: that Bay was telling the truth, and that these scenes weren't for Revenge of The Fallen, but some other Transformers product...

Transformers 2 On the US Navy carrier Stennis [Transformer 2 Unofficial Movie Blog]

The Baymeister updated his blog last week to offer the following response to the announcement of the ride:

The Transformer Ride at Universal making all the press rounds — not sure yet — they had me in a press release saying I supported it — but Universal has a long way to go in my mind. I don't support it yet — I'm not involved and not sure the story of the ride works, and I know Optimus is not going to just show up to be directed by some new people that have never worked with him. I hate when people bullshit a quote from me that I never said.

I'll keep you informed. Maybe the guy making the rides at Universal will direct Transformers 3????

I don't know what's more awesome; the joke at the end, or the idea that Bay may actually, on some level, believe that Optimus Prime is real enough to care who he's being directed by. Either way, it looks like Universal has some apologizin' to do... or perhaps they should just let the ride designer know that he's going to be directing a sequel to what will probably be one of 2009's hottest movies.

Michael Bay update from the Middle East [Michael Bay.com]

According to Universal Studios the ride will be featuring 3D-HD, special effects and the best robotics you've ever seen, guaranteed to cause Bayhem.

The audience is Earth's humans, caught in the middle of an intergalactic war between Autobots and Decepticons. Of course, the robowarriors will transform in front of your eyes. Say reps:

The rides are scheduled to make their debuts in early 2011, first at Universal Studios Singapore and then at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Transformers for real? Not just the cardboard box fellas on YouTube and at Saints games? I'll see you in Singapore.

[via ChannelNewsAsia]

Michael Bay
The Transformers director offers egomaniacal musings on vegan grub, explosives, and beach volleyball. What’s not to love?
Soundbite: “Right now, I am combing my hair. Holy hell it's a breathtaking mane.”

William Shatner
Apparently the real Shat has started his own official Twitter feed, but we’ll always have a soft spot for his original, macho imitator.
Soundbite: “Khhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn!!!!! There. I said it. Happy?”

Captain Picard
Ooooh, it’s on! At the risk of mixing metaphors, thus far fake Jean-Luc Picard has secured the lead over fake former James T. Kirk in the wackadoodle division.
Soundbite: “Captain’s Log: Did Horatio Hornblower ever have to put up with this?”

Dr. Walter Bishop
The brilliant/nutty doc from Fringe makes for bountiful fodder for satire in this more-creepy-than-deadpan offering.
Soundbite: "When given the option I prefer human test subjects as opposed to animals, simply because humans can better describe the type of pain."

Darth Vader
Or as he’s come to be known: nerd comedy gold
Soundbite: “Just realized I could totaly [sic] go SCUBA diving right now if I wanted to, no special equipment needed. It’s good to be me.”

Bad Horse
The Evil League of Evil leader riffs on villainy and reveals that he's a gadget hound.
Soundbite: “Developing a new superweapon; gathering ingredients. Wondering if I should make this hoof-triggered or telepathically controlled. Decisions.” (Meanwhile, we’re eagerly waiting for his spitfire take on Harry Potter’s provocative turn in Broadway's Equus.)

David Hasselhoff
Oh, ex-Knight Rider. Why are you so easy to make fun of?
Soundbite: “Deciding which leather jacket to wear.”

Aquaman
The curious trials and tribulations of superherodom’s most muscular swimmer gets immortalized. In yo’ face, Michael Phelps.
Soundbite: “Emergency over. Making some crab salad.”

Buffy Summers
The one-liners don’t even come near to rivaling Joss Whedon’s clever TV (or comic-book) scripting, but for sentimentality’s sake—and a quick Slayer fix—this will do.
Soundbite: “Ok. Seriously: Nigerian Masks and Hawaiian Tiki dolls are never a good thing to bring into the house.”

Zombie Attack
Which zombie attack? Well, any of them. Here, the walking-dead genre is imagined in a rather gripping play by play.
Soundbite: “I grab Greg and tear him away from the body. We run towards the exit as he tries to wipe the blood from his face.”

Besides all of the ridiculous new bay-related neologisms, the screaming and running away scenes from the first day of shooting do look pretty fun. In the video you can see a few moments with Arcee the motorcycle Transformers (and a few other different-colored motorbikes). It looks like they're filming the Bethlehem Steel works, which is subbing in for someplace in China.

More importantly, is "bayhem" going to replace "awesome"? If so I may bayshoot myself in the bayface.

[Transformers 2: Movie Chronicles]