Michael Bay and his team have denied a report from TheWrap which alleged that the filmmaker was charged for killing a pigeon in Italy during the production of 6 Underground.
In the legal letter obtained by Variety, Bay’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart slammed the report and demanded that TheWrap either retract or correct the story as the director was “never accused, much less ‘charged,’ with ‘killing’ an animal.” He added that prior to the story getting published, TheWrap knew about video evidence “rebutting these allegations and demonstrating that at no time was any animal harmed, let alone ‘killed.’”
Rosengart shared that the supposed “charge” Bay is facing in Italy “concerns whether, in his capacity as the film’s director, Mr. Bay failed to properly supervise crew members (whom he did not even have the ability to hire) responsible for handling the animals on set” and that a legal team is working on the matter. “Those statements are simply wrong; they are also harmful,” Rosengart wrote of the story.
Bay also defended himself and called TheWrap’s story “false, reckless and defamatory,” doubling down that he was not facing charges for killing or harming an animal. He previously told the publication that he will not share details of the ongoing court case, but also clarified that he turned down the option of paying a small fine to the Italian authorities as he “would not plead guilty to having harmed an animal.” The filmmaker continued, “I am a well-known animal lover and major animal activist. No animal involved in the production was injured or harmed. Or on any other production I’ve worked on in the past 30 years.”
An alleged production insider claimed to TheWrap that a homing pigeon was supposedly killed by a dolly during one of the takes, and that Bay was responsible for the crime (pigeons are a protected species in Italy, making it illegal for anyone to harm, kill or capture the bird) as he was the director.
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