Director Michael Bay introduced Samsung's new massive 150-inch curved TV screens at CES today, flubbed his lines halfway through his speech, and then in explicably walked off stage.
He was supposed to have a ecripted conversation about TV and big, bold images in movies.
He was introduced with some Transformers footage, walked on stage, and then began talking about how he creates worlds ... and then stopped. He sank into silence. He said something about not being able to see the monitor. Perhaps he was referring to the teleprompter - who knows!
And then he said "I'm sorry ..." and he walked off stage, leaving Samsung exec Joe Stinziano, evp Samsung America, to adlib his way out of it.
Totally bizarre.
Stinziano was a pro: He tried to prompt Bay into ad libbing and just talk like a normal human being about how a curved TV might improve movies. But Bay wasn't having it.
He just walked off. He looked shocked, or annoyed.
Perhaps he just had a panic attack. Perhaps he had not learned his lines properly.
But considering that the event was cued around a big wraparound screen carrying images from his movies, and that Bay was supposed to chat according to a script, it just looks like Bay was unprepared.
This was Samsung's biggest marketing event of the (admittedly young) year. Not cool, Michael Bay!
This was how Bay looked right before he choked:
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The This is the new Samsung 150-inch curved TV he was introducing (below). It's a shame because it really does look like an awesome TV:
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