Deadline brings us news of a new Michael Bay Covid-19 project that might be more controversial than the usual arguments about his work. At a minimum, the wisdom of shooting a movie about a real-life disaster while it’s still happening is questionable at best and exploitive at worst.
Songbird is set 2 years from now, and the pandemic is still going on at that time. In the film, described as a “taut thriller in the spirit of Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield,” stay-at-home restrictions have been eased and then put back in place, presumably because the infection rates rebound. Governmental conspiracies and paranoia also might come into play.
No word yet on how director Adam Mason (Alice in Chains: Black Antenna) plans to shoot the movie in Los Angeles, but actors will receive remote training, people will never be in a room together, and the various acting and production guilds have given their OKs to proceed. Production is slated to begin within 5 weeks, with casting already in progress.
Mason cowrote the script with Simon Boyes (Misconduct). Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, the Transformers series, and various rock videos) will be producing in conjunction with Invisible Narratives, a new studio founded by Adam Goodman, former president of both Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks SKG. Cinematography will be by Jacques Jouffret (the Purge series), with product design by Jennifer Spence (the Paranormal Activity series).
According to Deadline, the film will be up for sale at the online Cannes film market, Cannes XR Virtual, being held at the end of June.
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