It isn’t always easy to be a big-shot film director, and no, we’re talking about bad press or critics (like ourselves…), but about actual physical attacks, and yes they do exist. Michael Bay, the director of the Transformers franchise, and members of his crew, were harassed and blackmailed last week while filming the fourth installment of the series named “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” in Hong Kong.
Rumored by the local press to be members of the Chinese triad, but dubbed simply goons on drugs by Bay himself, they attempted to extort “thousands of dollars” to leave the filming crew alone. Two brothers were eventually arrested after they allegedly demanded 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (close to US$13,000).
On Thursday, a new report stemming from Hong Kong stated that a second extortion attempt took place during filming, something that Bay denied.
“I’m here to set the record straight again…my crew and I have been having a great time in Hong Kong despite what you may have read about us being “rocked by a second extortion attempt.” Totally untrue,” Bay said in a posting. “A few bad dudes have definitely not ruined the experience. We shoot from sun up to sun down, and the local HK crew have become part of our on-set family. We’re in the middle of busy streets, in businesses, and even in people’s homes, and everyone we’ve met has been very accommodating and generous. It’s been a once in a lifetime experience we’d all consider doing again.”
As for last week’s incident, Bay described it in a lengthy posting on his website thusly:
“Yes, the story is being passed around is not all true! Yes, some drugged up guys were being belligerent asses to my crew for hours in the morning of our first shoot day in Hong Kong. On guy rolled metal carts into some of my actors trying to shake us down for thousands of dollars to not play his loud music or hit us with bricks.
Every vendor where we shot got paid a fair price for our inconvenience, but he wanted four times that amount. I personally told this man and his friends to forget it we were not going to let him extort us. He didn’t like that answer. So an hour later he came by my crew as we were shooting, carrying a long air conditioner unit. He walked right up to me and tried to smack my face, but I ducked threw the air unit on the floor and pushed him away. That’s when the security jumped on him. But it took seven big guys to subdue him. It was like a Zombie in Brad Pitt’s movie World War Z—he lifted seven guys up and tried to bite them. He actually bit into one of the guards Nike shoe, insane. Thank god it was an Air Max, the bubble popped, but the toe was saved.
Then it took fifteen Hong Kong cops in riot gear to deal with these punks. In all, four guys were arrested for assaulting the officers. After that, we had a great day shooting here in Hong Kong. The place couldn’t be better.”
Photos Courtesy of Michael Bay, Video via TMZ
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