Michael Bay Receives Florence City Keys

The filmmaker Michael Bay, currently working on the Netflix production Six Underground in Florence, was given the keys to the city as well as a Fiorentina soccer team T-shirt with his name on it by deputy mayor Cristina Giachi on September 10 in Palazzo Vecchio’s Sala Leone X.  Bay went on record to state that he has significantly contributed (and will continue to contribute) to the city’s economy thanks to the project.

Six Underground resumes filming in Florence this week and a number of city roads will be closed to traffic: Lungarno Diaz, Lungarno Archibusieri, piazza del Pesce, Lungarno Acciaiuoli; via dei Girolamo, via dei Georgofili, piazzale degli Uffizi, via Lambertesca and Lungarno Serristori.

Counting other locations such as Siena, Pisa and Taranto, according to an exclusive interview given to La Repubblica, Bay estimates that the upcoming movies has gifted Italy with additional income totaling 90 million euro.

Florence’s goverment coffers received 500,000 euro so the troupe would be able to film on public streets, squares as well as museums and parks, all of which have temporarily inaccessible to the public on and off from the third week in August to the end of September.  Giachi went on record to state the money will be invested in the renovation of the Sant’Ambrogio Market.  Another 450,000 euro during a month in Florence was estimated to have been earned by city’s hotels, restaurants and shops thanks to the troupe employed on the project.

“Florence has never seen a chase scene such as the one that was filmed in August for Six Underground,” says Bay, who is convinced that the release of the movie will result in a boom of tourists in the Renaissance city.  Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Dave Franco and Ben Hardy are starring in the film.

To read more in Italian, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.