Not sure if posted yet but just seen 'The Hollywood Repoter' posted an article on a new AOE Lawsuit? Apparently: A tourism marketing company says it paid $1.6 million for a historic site in Wulong to appear in the film but it didn't get the promised exposure. A tourism marketing company in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing is the latest business in the country to consider a lawsuit against the producers of Transformers: Age of Extinction, after the movie's final edit reportedly made no reference to a scenic spot used during filming. The site was closed to the public for five days of shooting in October and November last year, and local media said the closure cost $819,500 in lost revenue from admission tickets, refreshments and hotel bookings. The administrators of the area also say they paid $1.6 million for it to appear in the movie, to introduce the area to an international audience. Source: Chinese Company Mulling Lawsuit Over 'Transformers 4' Product Placement (Report) EDIT: Feel free to move this to 'News and Rumours'.... I probably should have done that anyway lol
And this is why if you are going to take money from investors for a movie and they want their product in the movie, you do it! I don't understand making agreements like this and then editing it out of the movie? I really hate that movies like this have just become a big advertisement anymore. The way me make movies anymore is just outrageous.
That's because in the movie it looks like Wulong Valley is on the back side of Hong Kong Island in the movie. For anyone who cares, it's actually way up inside China and nowhere near the South China Sea. Looks like not only HK'ers are upset with that geographical blunder so I can't say I can blame Chongqing if they were indeed guaranteed their region would be named or identified. Basically it is the equivalent of putting the Grand Canyon somewhere on Manhattan Island. I'd say people in Arizona would be pretty upset if they saw a movie imply that their great natural landscape was on the other side of a massive urban city over 1/2 way across the country... On the plus side I'm making plans to go visit Wulong Valley coz the geological structures - natural bridges and gorges look absolutely AWESOME.
Yeah that's another thing I'm getting tired of with these movies. I can understand using a run down street in Deteoit as another location in another US city. Or a part of one of our cities like Deteoit or Chicago as a dressed up Hong Kong. But how is it that we can clearly use Millenium Park in Chicago as really being in Chicago but you take a national park and reserve, this marvel of natures beauty that is not in Hong Kong and edit it in as if it is? That would be like Bay trying to use Yellow Stone national park as a location in Canada or Mexico lol.
To be honest, dressing Detroit up as Hong Kong .. they may as well have used the back lot of Universal - it would have looked better... those scenes looked NOTHING like a real Hong Kong setting and really let the movie down (although I know it is targeted at an audience most of whom will never know because they don't even know where Hong Kong is - don't come to visit expecting to find a glasshouse and Chinese ruins in the middle of the central business district guys!). He could have filmed a lot of that action in Hong Kong if he hadn't been so rushed with only spending 10 days here. Loads of on site locations would have worked and made for spectacular backdrops... heck, the way Hong Kong runs their urban renewal here he could have probably been able to get permission to blow a real building or two up if he'd wanted!
if i was that company. I would just sue. paying a fee for exposure in a film that failed to deliver said exposure....it's simple breaking of a contract....and with the losses incurred for the shutdown so they could film...there is double motivation to get that $$ back.
And what did we learn (me included) from the last Chinese lawsuit hubbalubba, m'friends? Wait a bit before throwing stones.
the biggest problem is that the city of Hong Kong does not allow you to stop traffic or pedestrians for an entire day to shoot your film in Hong Kong. You can tell when you watch the making of, there are bystanders everywhere. And when you watch Hong Kong films, they just shoot their action by running through the streets and doing car chases while everyone is looking. That's why the shooting in the actual Hong Kong scenes were shot in such a tight way. There is no way that they could stage such a huge action sequence in Hong Kong. I've been to Hong Kong a number of times and I thought it was ridiculous how the geography is all screwed up and would make HK people very mad but hey, this sort of thing happens all the time. I've seen a car chase shot here in Vancouver and at one point they are in downtown and then later on the car chase ends up in another part of the city on the opposite side. Does it matter or affect the story as a whole, no it doesn't. Is it a regular thing for Hollywood films, yes it is. Does everyone complain, nope.....just the people who live there. The final battle in Mission City for the very first film was shot in Detroit, Downtown LA and Universal Backlot so that already tells you something about how films are made in Hollywood. They just have to use whatever resources they have available.
