The COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown, and the entertainment industry into a tailspin. The movie-going experience is in limbo, streaming services are grabbing anything still on the shelf to package as fresh content, and everything from films to TV to games have been bumped due to the hardships of production with remote pipelines. But in the chaos of the moment, a few advantageous storytellers have seen an opportunity to tell stories in new ways, from Zoom-shot specials to full-blown shot-in-quarantine TV dramas. And then there are people trying to tell the story of the moment urgently, and in the only way they know how.
Enter: Michael Bay.
Touted as the first feature film to be shot in Los Angeles during the outbreak, Songbird is a horror-thriller imagining the future of the coronavirus crisis. Produced by the Transformers director and helmed by Adam Mason (Hulu’s Into the Dark), the film finds the world stricken by the — get ready — COVID-23 virus, which has mutated and forced the population into a fourth year of lockdown. But in this harsh reality, which will definitely not feel extrapolated from current political conditions or give anyone watching anxiety whatsoever, infected Americans are removed from their homes by the government and put in quarantine camps. Luckily, LG technology still exists, making the world a better place.
Here’s the full synopsis:
Amid this dystopian landscape, a fearless courier, Nico (KJ Apa), who’s immune to the deadly pathogen, finds hope and love with Sara (Sofia Carson), though her lockdown prohibits them from physical contact. When Sara is believed to have become infected, Nico races desperately across the barren streets of Los Angeles in search of the only thing that can save her from imprisonment ... or worse.
Songbird also stars Bradley Whitford and Demi Moore as a wealthy couple who may hold the key to Nico’s mission; Alexandra Daddario as a singer enmeshed in a messy and forbidden affair; Paul Walter Hauser as a disabled veteran whose best friend - a drone named Max - is his eyes and ears to a world that has left him behind; Craig Robinson as Nico’s boss; and Peter Stormare as the corrupt head of the city’s “sanitation” department, which seizes those infected and transports them to the Q-Zone.
Just a fun time at the movies! The first trailer for Songbird gets around the restrictions necessary for a coronavirus production by isolating most of the characters and dipping into a world where everyone’s communicating over video calls. Maybe that’s a thing you would want to watch.
Songbird does not yet have a release date.
