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Songbird: Micheal Bay reveals first trailer for his pandemic thriller filmed during the pandemic

By Josh Weiss
Songbird

Art is now imitating art with the first timely first trailer for Songbird. Produced by Michael Bay (Transformers), the Purge-looking film is set in an apocalyptic world ravaged by a novel coronavirus known as COVID-23. The pathogen mutates at such an alarming rate, it makes hopes of a vaccine near-impossible.

Four years after the pandemic first began, an immune courier named Nico (KJ Apa) longs for the day when he can be reunited with his girlfriend Sara (Sofia Carson). That too is impossible under the draconian lockdown imposed upon the city of Los Angeles. When Sara is believed to have become infected, Nico races across town's barren streets to save her from imprisonment in the quarantine Q-Zone ... or worse. Adam Mason directed the film, working from a screenplay he co-wrote with Simon Boyes. The title may refer to the ironically tragic practice of keeping a songbird trapped in a cage.

Funnily enough, the trailer uses the same creepy remix of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" that was utilized in the first trailer for CBS All Access's The Stand miniseries — another project that deals with the spread of a deadly virus. Mask up and watch now:

"It's a dystopian, scary world, but it's a romantic movie about two people who want to be together, but they can't,” Mason recently told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s Romeo and Juliet, but they’re separated by her front door and by the virus.”

Bradley Whitford and Demi Moore co-star as a wealthy couple who may prove instrumental in Nico's mission to save his girlfriend. The rest of the ensemble cast features: Alexandra Daddario as a singer engaged in an affair with Whitford's character; Paul Walter Hauser as a disabled veteran, whose best friend is a drone named Max; 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.

Marcei A. Brown, Jason Clark, Jeanette Volturno, Adam Goodman, Andrew Sugerman, and Eben Davidson produce alongside Bay. Check out the poster and some first-look production stills below ...

Songbird poster
Songbird
Songbird

Songbird is a rather unique project, in that it was one of the first major movies to shoot in L.A. amid the COVID-19 health crisis. Despite a union dispute that threatened to derail the entire shoot, it was able to begin filming over the summer. Social distancing measures and other health safety guidelines were observed during principal photography.

No release date for the movie has been fixed yet.