Whenever any filmmaker makes a film, they keep in mind not to hurt anybody’s feelings intentionally. Then they need to take care of not harming any living beings physically. By doing so, they can face legal battles as well. One such incident surfaced on the internet about Ryan Reynolds’ 2019 action film, 6 Underground.

6 Underground is an American vigilante action thriller film directed by Michael Bay and stars Ryan Reynolds, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Mélanie Laurent, Adria Arjona, Ben Hardy, Corey Hawkins, and Dave Franco. When the film was released, Netflix announced a sequel film but later canceled it after getting mixed reviews. In recent times, the director of the film, Michael Bay, made it to the headlines because of killing a pigeon during the filming, which he vehemently denies.

Ryan Reynolds starrer 6 Underground resurfaced to fight a legal battle

Though the entire film is full of excitement and action, the Italian government didn’t like it. Not because of creative differences or shooting the fighting scenes at the location. They didn’t like it because the director of the film, Michael Bay, could face charges for killing a pigeon during the shooting in Venice. According to The Wrap, an insider had a video of an incident that they took to the authorities. Since then, there has been a legal fight going on between them and Mr. Bay.

Although the director denied the claims, saying the evidence was false. He even reaffirmed he would never, knowingly or unknowingly, harm or kill any animal. The director claimed to be an activist and shared his previous clean records. The Transformers‘ direction assured in his 30 years of career, no involved animals had been harmed.

The issue has become bigger because it indeed is a serious crime in Italy to harm or kill a pigeon. The reason being these pigeons are one of the 572 species of bird that is under the protection of European law’s Birds Directive. However, Bay had time to settle with the Italian government by paying some amount of fine. He declined to do so because he didn’t want to plead guilty to harming an animal. Therefore, he declined the offer and the results are still unknown.

Michael Bay’s legal team sends a letter to The Wrap

Following The Wrap’s exclusive piece dropping on the internet, Bay’s legal team sent the publication a letter that called the original story reckless, false, and defamatory. “Mr. Bay was never accused, much less “charged,” with “killing” an animal,” read the letter shared by Variety in its exclusive piece.

The letter further called The Wrap’s article harmful and malicious for sharing false facts despite the allegations being rebutted prior to the publishing of the article. By stating other similar cases involving monetary damages, the letter concludes by asking the publication to correct or retract the piece.

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