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Writing about one’s employer on the internet is rarely a sensible idea, and particularly ill-advised if one is a Hollywood director returning home in the small hours after a convivial night out.

Michael Bay, who recently directed the blockbuster Transformers for Paramount, threw caution to the wind this week when he posted an outraged message on his official website about his studio’s policy on releasing films only on high-definition DVD and not on Sony’s Blu-ray discs.

Paramount and its sister studio DreamWorks recently made a deal worth a reported $150 million (£75 million) to release their films exclusively on Toshiba’s HD-DVD technology.

Bay, whose latest collaboration with Paramount has made $660 million worldwide, declared that he would sever his links with the studio in an entry entitled “Paramount pisses me off”. He wrote: “No Transformers 2 for me! I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks!”

Paramount’s reaction was swift. The post was removed the same day and replaced with another in which Bay explained that he was simply repeating his friends’ opinions.

He said: “Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-ray and I drank the Kool-Aid hook, line and sinker. So at 1.30 in the morning I posted — nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you — I overreacted.”

He was persuaded by Paramount that HD-DVD players would be good value, he said. “As a director, I’m all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard first-hand people upset about a corporate decision. So today I saw [the film] 300 on HD, it rocks! So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!”

Bay is the latest director to take sides in the war between the high-definition formats. Steven Spielberg has praised Blu-ray; the 30th anniversary release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Sony on Blu-ray received the director’s blessing.

Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer responsible for the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, has said that Sony’s product “far surpasses any other format”. He released the first two Pirates films on Blu-ray.

Studios are split over the formats. Sony, Buena Vista and Fox — which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times — are releasing films exclusively on Blu-ray.

NBC-Universal and Paramount have declared for HD-DVD, and Time Warner is releasing on both formats.

Blu-ray discs have a larger capacity but advocates of HD-DVD claim that their discs have better interactive features. They are also cheaper to produce. HD-DVD players retail at £220 in Britain, compared with £450 for a Blu-ray player. Blu-ray players are also integrated into Playstation 3 games consoles, which cost £400.

Own goals online

—In 2000, Bradley Chait, a lawyer for Norton Rose, was disciplined by his bosses after he forwarded an e-mail to colleagues from his girlfriend in which she expressed her enthusiasm for oral sex. It was circulated around the world

—Trevor Luxton, a City banker, was forced to resign after his friends circulated an e-mail he sent them boasting of an affair with a former friend’s girlfriend

—Lucy Gao, an intern at Citigroup, became an internet celebrity in 2006 when she sent out an e-mail containing meticulous instructions about when and how to attend her 21st birthday party at the Ritz

—Peter Chung, an executive with the Carlyle Group, lost his job after sending an e-mail to colleagues pledging to sleep with every “hot chick” in Korea

—Jenny Amner, a secretary at the legal firm Baker & Mackenzie, was asked to cover a £4 dry cleaning bill by her boss, Richard Philips, for getting ketchup stains on his trousers. Her reply explained that her mother had recently died and “I have had more pressing issues than your £4”.

Source: Times database