Director Michael Bay has called a story by TheWrap “false, reckless and defamatory” after the publication reportedly faced allegations related to the killing of a pigeon on the set of the 2019 Netflix movie “6 Underground,” according to Variety.
The comments come after TheWrap reported that he was charged in Italy with killing a pigeon, a protected species in the country.
Bay, in a statement to the publication, described himself as a known animal lover and a great animal activist.
“No animals involved in the production were hurt or harmed. Or any other production I’ve worked on in the last 30 years,” he said in a statement.
TheWrap quoted an anonymous “insider” in its report as saying that a doll killed a carrier pigeon during a trip to Rome, while another source said “the scene involved a large group of pigeons and a wind.”
The publication reported that Bay was accused “of failing to supervise the crew members responsible for handling the animals,” according to Fabrizio Sigma, an Italian lawyer.
Bay’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, in a legal letter obtained by Variety, called TheWrap’s headline “false, reckless and defamatory” and slammed the report.
“As you know, Mr. Bay has never been charged, much less ‘accused’ of ‘killing’ an animal,” Rosengart wrote in the letter.
He added that TheWrap was made aware of the video evidence before the report was released that “refutes” claims of animal harm.
Photo by Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images
The letter continued: “The only ‘charge’ at issue in Italy is that Mr. Bay, in his capacity as director of the film, did not adequately supervise the crew members (whom he did not even have the ability to hire) responsible by film management. animals on the set. The prosecution is hard pressed – and indeed Mr. Bay is so hard pressed that, to his credit, he has refused to settle the case even for the nominal fine which has been proposed by the authorities to settle it.
The letter also makes a request to TheWrap: an “immediate retraction or correction” of the story.
HuffPost attempted to reach TheWrap for comment on the letter, but a phone number associated with the publication had a full mailbox.
