Michael Bay sustained injuries to the right side of his face after he was attacked today by two brothers on the set of “Transformers 4″ in Hong Kong, according to reports.
Two brothers with the last name Mak, aged 27 and 28, approached the prolific producer and director during filming and demanded payment of HK$100,000 ($12,900). It is not known why they asked for the money.
According to police the older brother attacked Bay and, eventually, three other police officers.
The younger brother was arrested on suspicion of blackmail and assault, while the older was also arrested on suspicion of assault.
Bay sustained injuries to the right side of his face, but declined medical attention. A spokeswoman said she did not believe his injuries were serious.
Paramount Pictures issued a statement which gave a slightly different account of the incident, saying that a man allegedly under the influence of a narcotic substance rushed onto the set wielding an air conditioning unit and swung it at Bay's head. It said Bay ducked and wrestled the air conditioning unit away from the man.
Later Thursday Bay took to his blog to set the record straight, supporting the Paramount statement and writing that "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.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
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."
"Transformers: Age of Extinction" is the fourth installment in the sci-fi franchise that has grossed more than $2.6 billion worldwide. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg and is set to be released in the U.S. on June 27, 2014.
