SHANGHAI, July 17 -- A BOY riding a bicycle was stopped on a national highway for chasing a truck that he mistook for a robot from the movie "Transformers" in Shandong Province yesterday, according to a newspaper.

The 11-year-old boy was stopped at Penglai toll station on National Highway No. 206 and told attendants that he was chasing Optimus Prime, a transformer that leads the Autobots in a war against the evil Decepticons.

The boy lives near Daxindian Town, which is close to the toll station, the report said.

A few days ago, the boy watched the Hollywood blockbuster film "Transformers," which hit cinemas on the Chinese mainland last week. Afterwards, he began madly clinging to all kinds of trucks.

He thought the trucks were transformers, said the report.

According to the article, the truck he saw yesterday was "very likely to be Optimus Prime."

The sci-fi film was the fastest to earn 100 million yuan in box office revenue on the Chinese mainland, outpacing "Spider-Man 3" and "King Kong," said a previous Beijing Morning Post report.

Gao Jun, assistant to the general manager with the Beijing's New Film Association, told Sina.com that the live-action blockbuster was expected to earn 200 million yuan (US$26.44 million) of box office revenue on the mainland.

The association raked in 11.89 million yuan from the movie as of yesterday, while the Shanghai United Cinema Line, the city's leading cinema chain, said it has sold 13.28 million yuan worth of tickets to the movie over the same period.