Michael Bay Attacked on Transformers 4 Set

Two men wanted money from the director

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Kevin Winter / Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

UPDATED AT 2:13 PM

Michael Bay and crew members working on the set of Transformer’s 4 in Hong Kong were attacked Thursday.

Paramount, the studio behind Transformers, said a man who was under the influence of narcotics attempted to assault Bay and others by wielding an air conditioning unit as a weapon. The man swung the air conditioner at Bay’s head, but the director dodged the blow and wrestled the AC away from the assailant, Bay and Paramount said.

The production company security team subdued the man, and the police arrested him and two of is companions.

“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,” Bay wrote on his website. “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.”

Initial reports indicated that the director sustained minor injuries, but both the studio and Bay said he wasn’t hurt. “Contrary to several erroneous news reports made today, Bay did not get hurt in a fight on set,” Paramount said.

The attacker reportedly asked Bay for 100,000 dollars in Hong Kong currency, about $12,900. Bay said the attacker was a local vendor who wanted four times the money that he had been paid by the studio for the inconvenience of having a movie filmed near his stand. Bay refused, at which point the man returned with an air conditioner.

Filming of the new Transformers movie — scheduled for release in June 2014 and starring Mark Wahlberg — continued after the dispute.

This story has been updated to reflect new information about the incident.