'Transformers' director Michael Bay attacked in Hong Kong

Michael Bay was attacked on the first shooting day of his new movie in Hong Kong by a man wielding an air conditioning unit.

15:42 18 October 2013

Transformers franchise director Michael Bay was attacked in Hong Kong by a man wielding an air-conditioning unit during the first shooting day of his new movie in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

The police arrested two men over the incident. On his website, Mr Bay, who is also the director of the movie Armageddon confirmed that the reports were true but issued some corrections saying "the story... being passed around is not all true!" However, his spokesman said that the 48-year-old Hollywood director was not seriously injured in the assault.

In a statement, Hong Kong police said: "When the movie crew was filming, one of the arrested persons was seeking HK$100,000 (from Bay), leading to a scuffle. Another arrested person suddenly attacked him.”

"The right side of his face was injured, but he refused to go to the hospital."

Meanwhile, the director has told his side of the story on his website. He wrote: "Some drugged-up guys were being belligerent asses to my crew for hours... 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."