Michael Bay is currently filming Transformers: Age of Extinction, the sequel literally no one asked for, and today there has been a short delay in filming as a result of incident on the Hong Kong set. According to reports, intruders worked their way onto the set and having been refused $13000 that they’d demanded, they felt it necessary to throw a punch at Bay. Exactly how these people got onto such a well-guarded set is a mystery but the intruders were arrested almost immediately and Bay continued filming later that day.
I really can’t stand Michael Bay’s films, but I’m utterly bemused why someone would simply turn up at a film set and demand $13000. In short, don’t try to break onto a set and demand a whole bunch of money from a director who shoots robots and explosions. Here’s a statement from Bay on the incident:
“Hi, it’s Michael.
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. 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 through 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.”
Transformers 4 is set for release on June 27th 2014 with Bay directing a cast that includes Mark Wahlberg (Pain & Gain), Jack Reynor (What Richard Did), Stanley Tucci (Captain America: The First Avenger), Nicola Peltz (Bates Motel), Bingbing Li (Resident Evil: Retribution), Sophia Myles (Underworld), Victoria Summer (Saving Mr. Banks), Titus Welliver (Lost) and T.J. Miller (She’s Out of My League).
Originally published October 17, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
