Transfomers' Producers: Battling Like Autobots and Decepticons

Paramount and DreamWork's Transformers grossed $152.6 million at the box office over the past six and a half days, the best weeklong opening run ever for a nonsequel, eclipsing the original Spider-Man. And as I mentioned before when writing about director Michael Bay's spat with producers Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy (who had originally shopped a Transformers treatment around Hollywood back in 2003), you'd think that the people behind the movie would just keep it shut and enjoy their success. But that's not the case, and today, the New York Times takes a look at the some of the behind-the-scenes battles as well as the weapons used in the wars of words. Interestingly enough, Laura Holson's piece doesn't focus directly on the issues of credit grabbing (which inspired Bay to sound off in that memo) but instead zeroes in on the producer Don Murphy's personal website, which he uses to both connect directly with fans for their imput on films and voice frustrations (or in other words, manage his own spin). It seems like everyone has a megaphone these days. Let the well-mannered screaming begin.

The site would seem to be a perfect example of a modern media company reaching out to potential audience members in a new, interactive conversation. But in an unorthodox twist -- one that might give media companies some pause -- Mr. Murphy's site quickly became a home not only for fans to debate whether Megatron's form should be a tank or a gun (he ended up as an alien jet) but a place to vent frustration with the movie's production as well as with the executives who worked on the film.

The site also helped expose the internal politics of making movies, where credit is hard fought and studios seek to distance themselves from things or people they can't control.

"With 'Transformers' we had this really rabid following," said Mr. Murphy, whose films include "Natural Born Killers" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." "To be frank, I wanted to have some way where we could at least hear what people think."