The Energon Pub

Paramount Pictures has been hit with a $27.7 million (180 million yuan) lawsuit in China over a product placement that was allegedly omitted from Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Wulong Karst Tourism, a state-backed travel company, argued Tuesday in local court that Paramount Pictures and China Movie Channel, the Chinese co-producer of Transformers 4, failed to fulfill their obligations as part of a product placement deal signed in 2013, according to Chongqing Morning Post.

The case was accepted by a court in Chongqing city in 2014 and is now finally being heard.

Wulong Karst Tourism runs a resort in China's southern Wulong county, an area famous for its eroded limestone cliffs, a magnificent landscape known as "karst." Portions of Age of Extinction were shot in Wulong Karst National Park, and the tour company says its deal with Paramount was for a logo, featuring the Chinese characters “China Wulong,” to be displayed in the finished film, so Chinese audiences would know where the film was shot. The company says it paid nearly $750,000 (4.8 million yuan) before production began in exchange for the promotion.

According to local press, the defendants — Paramount and China Movie Channel — conceded that the logo didn't make it into the finished film, but said they took pains to make up for it. Michael Bay is said to have shot a short advertisement for the resort, and the Transformers production team left sets and props on the resort property, which Wulong Karst Tourism could leverage as a tourist attraction.

The Chongqing court has yet to deliver a verdict.

The Transformers 4 shoot in greater China was not without other incident. During a day of shooting in Hong Kong in 2013, Bay was attacked by two local thugs who had tried to extort the shoot for "protection money" and been rebuffed. One of the assailants allegedly came after Bay using a piece of an air conditioner as a weapon. The director managed to escape unscathed, and the attackers were subdued by security and arrested.

Transformers 4 was a tremendous hit in China, grossing $320 million.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:I know it's different from actual product placement, but I mean come one, the latter 1/3 of the film is basicLly a big commercial for...China. Shouldn't that count for at least a little?

A Chinese court on Thursday ordered Viacom's Paramount Pictures and a Chinese production partner to pay $295,000, or 2 million yuan, including incurred legal fees, to a tourist resort in a breach of contract dispute over product placement in Transformers: Age of Extinction.

The court in Chongqing found that Paramount and Chinese partner 1905 failed to fulfill their major obligations under the agreement, but later partially made up for it, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting China National Radio.

The management company for the Wulong Karst National Geological Park had brought the lawsuit, saying the two sides had agreed that a logo of the resort would appear in the fourth Transformers film's final edit.

The defendants had admitted that the logo didn't make the film, but they tried to make up for that by allowing director Michael Bay to make an advertising spot for the resort and leaving behind items built for the film as tourist attractions.

The court rejected a counter claim filed by Paramount due to Wulong Karst’s decision to only pay part of the agreed-upon fees once it found out its name and logo did not appear in the film.