The Hong Kong man who attempted to extort money from the “Transformers: Age of Extinction” director Michael Bay in October, and then attacked the filmmaker with an air conditioner, was found guilty of two charges and sentenced to over two years in jail.
A judiciary spokeswoman told AFP that Mak Chi-shing, 27, an air conditioning technician, was convicted of blackmail and assaulting a police officer in the execution of his duty. The sentence was 30 months imprisonment.
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Mak approached Bay on the first day of filming in the city’s Quarry Bay district, and demanded more compensation than already given to local vendors for disruption caused by filming. After Bay refused, Mak returned with an air conditioner in hand and swung it at the director.
“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 wrote on his blog after the incident. “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.”
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Mak’s 28-year-old brother, Mak Chi-hang, was also arrested at the time, and sentenced to six weeks behind bars for “resisting police officers during the execution of their duties,” according to the judiciary spokeswoman.
The South China Morning Post reported Judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen said the case had tarnished Hong Kong’s reputation abroad, which played a factor in the sentencing.
“Transformers: Age of Extinction,” which stars Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, hits theaters on June 27.