“I was going for with a vengeance”: Michael Bay Turned Down Steven Spielberg to Direct $350M Sandra Bullock Breakout Movie With Keanu Reeves That Left Him Heartbroken

Michael Bay has a unique style when it comes to filmmaking, quite evidently seen in his Transformers films. The filmmaker made his feature directorial debut with the 1995 film, Bad Boys, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. However, had things gone Michael Bay’s way, he would have made his debut a year prior to Bad Boys.

Michael Bay went out of his way to try and get the 1994 film, Speed, to become the first feature film he directed. Unfortunately, it went to another director and the film became his directorial debut instead. Before Speed, though, Steven Spielberg wanted Michael Bay to direct a feature film as well. Looks like he was quite in demand!

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Michael Bay Turned Down Steven Spielberg

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Before Michael Bay could make his directorial debut in 1995, Steven Spielberg’s production company wanted the filmmaker to helm a feature film. Whatever may be the reason, Bay ended up declining the offer. Perhaps the dismissal came from the fact that he was looking for a film like Speed to launch himself into Hollywood as a feature film director.

In an interview with Collider, Bay revealed that no matter what it takes, he wanted the Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock-starrer under his name. However, with how unpredictable life is, things don’t always go our way and the same happened with Bay. He lost the job to cinematographer Jan de Bont, who found his directorial debut in Speed, instead of Bay.

“The first movie I was going for with a vengeance was Speed. I lost that movie. Okay? Jan de Bont did a great job.”

Clearly, Bay has no bad blood with de Bont over this. While Speed went on to receive critical acclaim with a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, Bay’s debut Bad Boys could only garner a low rating of 43%.

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Michael Bay Was Offered One of Steven Spielberg’s Best Films

In 1998, Spielberg released Saving Private Ryan starring Matt Damon and Tom Hanks which is set in France during the period of World War II. Praising Spielberg for his film, critics called Saving Private Ryan as a much darker and more pessimistic film than any of the filmmaker’s other works. With a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Saving Private Ryan is among Spielberg’s best works.

The film could have looked completely different as it was first offered to Bay.  However, he does not feel any remorse about turning it down as he truly believes no one could have done it better than Spielberg himself. Bay told Collider,

“I was given Saving Private Ryan before Steven. Steven, when I saw it…That’s the greatest first scene of any movie I’ve ever seen. I would’ve never done a better job. Steven was perfect for that.”

The film went on to receive several nominations, including Best Picture, at the 71^st Academy Awards out of which it won in the categories: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing. However, it did take home a Golden Globe for Best Drama!

You can stream Speed on AMC, Bad Boys on Starz, and Saving Private Ryan on Prime Video.

Source: Collider