For many film fans, Michael Bay is cinematic enemy number one, responsible for almost a dozen critically reviled but commercially successful blockbusters. But even his most vocal critics have reserved their frustrations to attack the films he has made (most amusingly through the Team America song 'Pearl Harbour Sucked'), rather than the man himself.
Filming the latest Transformers film in Hong Kong earlier this week, however, Bay was a victim of an attempted physical attack. Initially, conflicting details emerged about the incident. Early reports suggested that Bay had been approached by two brothers looking to extort HK$100,000 (approximately €9,400) from the director, with Bay receiving injuries to the side of his face before police arrested the siblings.
Paramount responded with a statement explaining Bay had been approached by an assailant - "allegedly under the influence of a narcotic substance" - wielding an air conditioner. The studio stressed the director emerged unscathed.
Bay has explained on his website what really happened. "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," Bay writes. "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," Bay continues. "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."
Bay goes on to point out it took 7 'guys' to subdue the assailant, and 15 Hong Kong Police officers to deal with the 'punks' attempting to disrupt the shoot. 4 people were eventually arrested.
The director concludes that they still had a successful day's filming, and Hong Kong generally "couldn't be better".
Transformers: Age of Extinction will be released next summer, and feature Ireland's own Jack Raynor alongside Mark Wahlberg. Going by Bay's previous efforts in the franchise, expectations are low.
