We are already in a new world when it comes to everything from indoor dining to toilet paper supplies and pants-free corporate gatherings. So, thanks to Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes banner, we can now take a glimpse at how the world will look if things get any worse. The intense first trailer for SONGBIRD starring KJ Apa, Sophia Carson, and directed by Adam Mason imagines what COVID-23 could look like. That's right, I said COVID-23.
Movies set in the not too distant future used to be quaint places with hoverboards and JAWS 23 and now they are nightmarish dystopias that could be weeks or months away.
Songbird is set in 2024 when the COVID-19 virus has mutated into a much deadlier strain of COVID-23 and the worldwide death toll is more than 110 million. The entire world is into its fourth year of lockdown when Nico (Apa) – a courier who has COVID immunity – finds love with Sara (Carson), but the couple has never met as a result of the lockdown. (via Digital Spy)
Joining Apa and Carson for the too-close-to-home thriller are Bradley Whitford, Paul Walter Hauser, Craig Robinson, Peter Stormare, and Alexandra Daddario.
Filmed during the peak of the first COVID-19 wave earlier this summer, SONGBIRD is one of the first films fully produced during this new era of health restrictions. Using social distancing as a plot device, this is not like the films and shows we have seen pop up in recent months filmed entirely on Zoom. SONGBIRD is a full-fledged feature film. Will it change the way movies are made? Not likely, but at the very least it will be an interesting artifact of what 2020 was like for those who watch it in the future.