The one thing Michael Bay is afraid of...

From ScreenRant:

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen comes out on [June 24th] but there’s still quite a lot of work that needs to be done to finish it off, including the voice overs of the Transformers characters for which Bay describes as 'still not done'.

This is by no means a major news item but it sure is interesting. At least one of the characters needing a voice is the title character of The Fallen where actor Leonard Nimoy is reportedly desired to fill the role. Transformers and Star Trek writer, Roberto Orci, wrote on the Don Murphy (a producer for the Transformers movies) forums last month that he talked to Nimoy about it but reminded fans to not to get their hopes up.

MTV spoke with director Michael Bay and asked if the Star Trek actor would be among the voice cast:

'You know, he’s related to me… And now that you are filming this, maybe you can send it to him.'

Laughing during the response, Bay went on to explain his hesitance at popping the big question...

'[Nimoy] is married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin to me… I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like 'I can’t pay you that much? But would you do this voice?'

Bay explains that he doesn’t want to insult the family member by presenting him with a lowball offer because of his very limited budget allocated to compensating the voice cast.... Nimoy apparently told Bay’s mom that he’s interested.... MTV asked Bay about this and he explained that him and Spock have a family member to relay communications between them and that Nimoy told his mom that he 'might do it.'"

COME ON, MICHAEL!! IT'S NOT THAT HARD!! "[imitating Roger Rabbit] P-p-please be in my blockbuster movie, Mr. Nimoy, sir?"

UPDATE:

From ScreenRant.com:

A few days ago, Screen Rant reported on Michael Bay’s desire to have his cousin and Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy voice the title character in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. While this sounds like a great idea and an obvious choice with Nimoy’s family connection to Bay, his status as a sci-fi icon and his previous involvement in the original 1986 Transformers movie [as Decepticon reboot of Megatron, Galvatron], it’s not so simple for director Michael Bay. Bay is literally afraid to ask Nimoy to participate in the film with less than two months to go before its release. In an interview with MTV, the issue was revealed by Bay in a laughing manner. He claimed that the voice actors on the movie get paid little and he’s afraid of disrespecting family members by calling Nimoy and giving him a lowball offer to play a part in the film. Because of that, they’ve not been in direct contact and have been using Bay’s mom as a go-between of sorts. In a similar style, Nimoy took the opportunity of one of his own interviews to respond to Bay. This occurred when El Guapo at Latino Review got a chance to speak with the original Spock during the Star Trek press day this weekend and asked him if Bay had contacted him yet. Nimoy responded by looking into the camera and saying, 'Call me, Michael! Call me!' Nimoy continued on to say he’d gladly be a part of Transformers but for some reason Bay’s afraid to just ask. After that, Nimoy again pleaded for Bay to call him."

YOU SEE, MICHAEL?! EVEN SPOCK WANTS YOU TO CALL HIM! GET SCOTTY TO BEAM YOU UP AND GET IN TOUCH WITH MR. VULCAN!!!

UPDATE 2:

Well, it looks like Leonard Nimoy will not play "The Fallen" as originally planned. He was replaced by Tony Todd, best known for his roles in the Final Destination films and played a role in Michael Bay's The Rock. Looks like you let that one get away, Michael!

Nimoy instead contributed his voice services for Brad Silberling's Land of the Lost as the voice of the Zarn.