LAS VEGAS -- Michael Bay certainly knows how to wow a crowd.

The Hollywood director and producer abruptly walked off stage during a Samsung press conference here on Monday, surprising a large crowd and temporarily disrupting what was supposed to be a highly choreographed, well-scripted presentation to show off the South Korean tech giant's latest lineup of consumer electronics.

Bay was on stage to help Samsung promote the company's huge, new curved UHD (ultra high definition) televisions. The press conference was part of CES, the annual gathering of electronics companies in Las Vegas.

Samsung's Joe Stinziano asked Bay, who has directed and produced blockbusters like "Armageddon" and the "Transformers" series, what inspires him and how he comes up with his "unbelievable ideas."

See video above.

Bay started to answer, but then he trailed off, turned in a circle and appeared to blame the teleprompter, saying, "The type is all off. Sorry. But I'll just wing this."

"Tell us what you think," Stinziano said, going along with it.

"Yeah, we'll wing it right now," Bay said, shaking his head.

"I try to take people on an emotional ride and, um ..." he trailed off again.

Stinziano attempted to get Bay back on track by asking him how the new TV's curved screen will impact viewers' experience of his movies.

But with that, Bay excused himself, apologized and walked off the stage.

Startled, Stinziano apologized to the audience but still thanked Bay several times.

"Welcome to Vegas. It's live shows, folks," Stinziano said.

UPDATE: 5:10 p.m. PST -- Later on Monday, Bay released a statement on his website: