Michael Bay thinks the do-not-work order on ‘Songbird’ was caused by a "money thing".
The 55-year-old director is producing the upcoming movie – which is set two years in the future when the coronavirus pandemic is still present – but it was put in doubt after the SAG-AFTRA union ordered its members to avoid the project.
Michael – whose movie has now been given the green light – told The Hollywood Reporter: "We worked out the safety issues months ago, and we resolved (the latest issue with the unions) over the weekend.
"I don’t even think it was a safety issue. It was a money thing."
The project – which features stars such as Demi Moore and Paul Walter Hauser – will become the first blockbuster filmed in Los Angeles since the virus brought the industry to a halt.
And Michael hinted there is a "special sauce" to make sure the production is shot safely.
The ‘Transformers’ director said: "We are literally going to be the first film to shoot in LA. And we have a kind of special sauce with how we’re doing it where there’s zero contact."
Jessica Lacy, who is selling the flick for ICM Studios, added that the Adam Mason-helmed movie is both "timely and terrifying".
She said: "It is very much actors on their own – nobody is interacting quite in the same manner in which a normal production would function.
"It’s obviously timely and also terrifying."