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Director Attacked During Film Shoot

Oct 17, 2013  •  Post A Comment

A film director who has helmed a string of major features was attacked today while filming his latest movie, USA Today reports. Michael Bay was reportedly working in Hong Kong on the latest installment in the "Transformers" series when two men attacked him.

"Local police tell Reuters that two young men — brothers — approached Bay and the younger sibling demanded that he hand over nearly $13,000," the story reports. "According to local police, the older brother attacked Bay and then assaulted police who tried to intervene. Both brothers were arrested; the younger on suspicion of blackmail and assault and the elder on suspicion of assault."

Bay reportedly took to his blog to try to set the record straight about what happened.

The report quotes Bay writing on his blog: "Yes, the story is (sic) 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. One 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."

Bay adds: "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."

Bay suffered injuries to his face, according to a police spokesperson cited in the report. A representative for Bay, however, says the director was uninjured.

In a statement provided to The New York Times, a spokesperson for Bay said: "The director ducked and wrested the air conditioner from his attacker, preventing what could have been a serious accident. The company’s security team quickly stepped in and subdued the assault. The police, who also scuffled with the assailant and two of his companions, ultimately arrested the three men. No one on the cast or crew was injured and the production immediately resumed filming without further incident."

Along with the "Transformers" series, Bay is known for directing "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor," among many other films.

michael bay.pngMichael Bay

One Comment

  1. After seeing one or two Michael Bay movies, I’ve wanted to slug him, too. But seriously, this is ridiculous.
    Location managers have been dealing with street thugs for generations — read the stories about filming The Godfather on location. It’s always easier — and in the long run, cheaper — to buy these guys off than stand on principle and lose hours of filming time and risk injury to cast or crew.

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