Michael Bay and James Cameron Mourn the Current State of Hollywood: “No one can greenlight anything anymore.”

Whether you like them or not, Michael Bay and James Cameron are among the most famous Hollywood directors of all time. Both are known for making commercially successful epic, and while Michael Bay focuses more on action-heavy filmy, Cameron has shown he is a more versatile director. He also has a better track record in general.

At the same time, both have had a lot of success and based on a recent interview with Michael Bay, they seem to be friends. As the director said, the two of them recently had a long talk and during that talk, they discussed the current state of Hollywood.

It is true that the movie industry is changing. It’s not just the technology, but also the societal aspects, as the film industry is now more important than ever. Of course, some moviemakers struggled to adapt, while others were quick to accept the new streams. And while the situation is potentially changing once again, Michael Bay talked about one aspect of these changes that he finds annoying.

The director has expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that Hollywood has become slower and that it takes a lot of time for him to get a project approved, something he discussed with Cameron:

‘I just had a conference call with Jim Cameron and we were both commiserating about Hollywood. No one can greenlight anything anymore. It’s just so slow. It’s a very different business,’ Bay said.

‘During Armageddon, those were the days. We had Jonathan Hensleigh, the writer. We sat down for two or three weeks. We had the NASA guy come into my office. We worked out this 20-minute pitch. We go into [former Walt Disney Chairman] Joe Roth’s office.

This would be my third movie. And Joe, he’s like a real old time, cool studio executive. He goes, “That’s going to be my July 4th movie. I want to name it Armageddon.” We walk out and we’re looking at each other. “Did he just greenlight that movie?” That doesn’t happen now. But that’s how it used to happen,’ he added.

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