Transformers: The Last Knight star Anthony Hopkins says Michael Bay's Transformers films are the work of "a genius". Bay, of course, is the high-energy filmmaker who brought the Hasbro action figure franchise to the big screen in live-action form in 2007 with the blockbuster Transformers, followed by three sequels that were a smash at the worldwide box office. Bay says The Last Knight, in theaters in June, will be his last time in the director's chair for a Transformers film (maybe).
With the continued success of the franchise, Bay has attracted A-list marquee talent, with perhaps his biggest coup over the course of the five-film series being the casting of The Silence of the Lambs Oscar winner Hopkins – the nefarious Hannibal Lecter from the 1991 Best Picture Oscar winner and subsequent Hannibal films.
In an interview with Yahoo! Movies at CinemaCon, Hopkins says it didn't take long before he launched into his role as astronomer, historian and Autobot ally Sir Edmund Burton in The Last Knight to realize the magnitude of what Bay has created with the Transformers series. He says of the films and Bay:
"[They're] terrific, they're created by a genius. All those machines and those Transformers are created by Michael. And he was telling me about the work he did on them - how he would refine them and go into the special effects guys and design them and get all the details of light on metal and all that. He told me all that at breakfast before I started on the film. I thought 'This guy's a genius. He really is.' He’s the same ilk as Oliver Stone and Spielberg and Scorsese. Brilliance. Savants, really, they are. He’s a savant."
Those are pretty bold claims for any actor to make, but if anybody knows directors it's Hopkins. Not only did he work with but Spielberg on Amistad, he teamed Stone on Nixon and Alexander (Stone was taught by Scorsese at NYU, so that qualifies Hopkins' third comparison); he also teamed with Kenneth Branagh on Thor, Darren Aronofsky on Noah and of course, Jonathan Demme on The Silence of the Lambs. In short, Hopkins has done enough work with top-notch directors to make any claim he wants.
While some may want to dismiss Hopkins praise of Bay as pre-release hype, they need to first consider the enthusiasm both the actor and director have for their work. While some of the Transformers movies have been better received than others, there's no question that Bay has poured every ounce of his energy into them. And it's worth noting Hopkins' praise is mostly on a scale and technical level, something even those who hate the director would struggle argue with.
As for the 79-year-old Hopkins, he's at the point of his career where he could easily settle into far-less flashier projects but instead continues to venture into the comic book realm with the Thor films and sci-fi with TV series like Westworld. When it comes to his next film, clearly Bay's commitment to the franchise is exactly what keeps Hopkins' motor running full-throttle.
Source: Yahoo! Movies
