Transformers: Age Of Extinction Being Sued

With “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” opening on Friday, it would seem nothing can stop Optimus Prime and company from dominating worldwide box offices once again. Well, that is unless a property developer out of Beijing has anything to say about it.

Yahoo reports on one of the strangest lawsuits this site has seen. Beijing Pangu Investment Co. Ltd is suing its business partners and demanding that Paramount Pictures edits “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” before it plays in China.

This company owns a dragon-shaped hotel called Pangu Plaza, and their complaint alleges that some of their properties and logos are on display in the latest Transformers movie. That was all well and good as long as “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” held its premiere at their dragon-shaped flagship and featured the hotel in their advertising.

As neither has occurred, since the film’s world premiere kicked off in Hong Kong last Thursday, Beijing Pangu Investment Co. Ltd is imploring the Chinese government to stall the theatrical release of “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” until it’s revised to cut out all logos and properties belonging to this allegedly wronged developer.

As Pangu Plaza is said to extend the length of six football fields and has a distinctive look, we suspect American audiences will easily be able to pick out the contested scenes when it hits theaters this weekend.

The lawsuit essentially boils down to how Beijing Pangu Investment Co. Ltd expected to profit off of “Transformers: Age Of Extinction,” which is–they expected lots of international promotion through the film’s marketing.

For this – and presumably their properties’ inclusion in the movie – they paid $1.6 million in funding.

In a statement regarding the lawsuit that is aimed at the company’s Chinese partners, Beijing Pangu Investment Co. Ltd explains: “The loss of rights and interests not only caused the Pangu company’s original business plan to fail, incurring huge losses, more seriously, it has affected Pangu Plaza’s image and reputation.”