Saw another thread and it moved me to post, after some careful thought. How many of have you even read the script in its entirety? Because really, it’s not that bad, or at least no worse than anything that came before it… However one thing that I’ve found is that there have been some serious misrepresentations of said screenplay. To me this whole story reads like the TMNT script leak all over again. In the case of TMNT, a script leaked, and in that case, Michael Bay said it was fake. Then the screenplay began to get passed around, and reached critical mass, because it was so god-awful. It got to a point where Bay had to acquiesce and admit the screenplay was real, but a very early draft that he was no longer associated with, which then caused further uproar because it meant that the writers were actually going down the horrible path that had been leaked. Then the studio went into damage control and sent cease and desist orders to all web sites publishing it. So we have a script leak for Transformers 4. Bay once again says it’s fake. Then he says it’s a script to a Hasbro production, and the leaked script disappears. Those of us who got it in the early hours of the story held onto it, but no website is actually publishing it anymore. I think they went into damage control early on, and Bay’s “Hasbro script” remark is not unlike his “it was a very early draft that I’m no longer associated with” remark on TMNT. It’s a much more vague assertion that gives him wiggle room, essentially saying, yeah this is an early draft, we’re re-writing it now, we’re on page 70, but don’t be surprised if a few threads of this show up in the final draft. That way he avoids all the uproar he caused by admitting the legitimacy of the early TMNT script, and leaves people scratching their heads… What does that mean? The other item that lends legitimacy, is the sheer number of sites that reported on it, generally speaking fan fiction doesn’t get reported on by Entertainment Weekly, and just about every other major media outlet. The sheer number of Google hits is crazy, for fan fiction? Yeah I don’t think so. Though admittedly because the script disappeared so fast, a lot of sites just got the story plain WRONG, which made it sound absurd.
In an age when the financial information of the First Lady and celebrities can be hacked nothing is safe. Throw in the 24/7 nature of entertainment news and there is more demand of forbidden information than ever before. The Hollywood reaction is always to say that something is fake just like the other times a Transformers script got leaked. Honestly I don't know why they make such a big fuss over a Transformers script getting leaked or not because almost no one goes to see these movies for the characters or the story. People show up to see the latest effects from ILM and the action scenes that have been packed into the film. The script is just all that annoying stuff between the good parts of the Transformers films. Although I am sort of surprised more pranksters haven't taken advantage of the public desire for leaked movie scripts.
Not to mention that time travelling TF3 script. Yeah, movie 1 got leaked, but beats me why a trend that is at best batting .333 is being treated as gospel.
I'd put it like this. If a TF4 script leaks, and after you read it you realize that it's great and really brought out your inner 12 year old while at the same time making for a smart, witty and action packed film, It's probably fake. If you read the script and it seems like a big letdown, the script is real. /debbiedowner
With the leaked scripts we never really know if wasn't just some early rough draft that rejected. It's not all that unusual for films to have a few crude drafts before a production team is happy with where a script is going. For book adaptations it's not as bad because there is already a direction things must go, but when the whole story has to be forged from scratch lots of things get thrown out. Even in the reject scripts we saw a few things that managed to make it into the finished film.
The script was likely leaked - it was likely one of many early scripts and was leaked solely for the reason of actually getting fan opinion. When the fan's responded Bay got the script removed so they could use elements of that script in the plot.
Although the leaked script for TF1 was fairly accurate to a lot of what ended up on screen. I remember back on the old official TF movie boards where people were matching up set videos and photographs as they emerged during production with scenes from the leaked script. Was a fun game. More fun were the people that screamed over and over that the leaked script was fake and wouldn't be convinced otherwise at all even though the evidence was mounting up that it was a legitimate version, even if not the final version. Sure, many leaked scripts are fake, but sometimes one comes along that isn't. Often they're better judged on a case-by-case basis while taking into account stuff like budget requirements and how much of it reads like total fanfic.