Haute 100: The CIA Met With Micheal Bay, Here’s Why

While many wait impatiently to know whether or not 50-year-old Michael Bay will be returning as the director of Transformers 5, Bay has been focused on his new forthcoming film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which is set to be released next month. While working on the film, Bay was contacted by one of—if not—the highest intelligence agency within the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In an interview with The Daily Beast, a spokesperson for the government agency revealed the real reason why the CIA met with Bay. The Daily Beast disclosed a CIA spokesperson admitted that its representatives met with the director, but they claim that it wasn’t to spin the movie in their favor or grant Bay access to information regarding his film, as they did with Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow for the 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty. The agency wanted to make certain Bay’s film will not conflict with national security or “compromise their officers and agents working abroad.”

CIA spokesperson Kali Caldwell told The Daily Beast, “When Michael Bay reached out to CIA regarding his 13 Hours film, we agreed to meet him for the purpose of protecting against the potential release of classified information. As with other Hollywood projects and in line with agency regulations, CIA does not endorse this film or any other film.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the forthcoming film, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is based off the book 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi written by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team. The book presents, for the first time ever, the true account of the events of Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorists attacked the US State Department Special Mission Compound and a nearby CIA station called the Annex in Benghazi, Libya. It focuses on the security team that attempted a rescue of American ambassador Christopher Stephens.

The film adaption stars John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, Toby Stephens, David Giuntoli, James Badge Dale, Max Martini and David Costabile.

13 Hours is slated to be released in the U.S. on Jan. 15, 2016.

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