Michael Bay Is Producing A Science Fiction Movie About A Trump-Inspired Dystopia

When Donald Trump was somehow elected President of the United States of America, many people around the world took solace in knowing that this turn of events would probably inspire some pretty fascinating art before everyone got killed in the fires of a nuclear holocaust. However, I think it's pretty safe to say that none of us expected Michael Bay to wade into this particular pond. But here he is: the director of The Rock, Armageddon, and the Transformers movies is producing Little America, a science fiction movie set in a dystopia where a "Donald Trump-like President" has sent the United States spiraling into bankruptcy.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Universal has won the bidding war for the screenplay and John Carpenter fans will note that the premise of Little America is awfully familiar:

Described by sources as a "sci-fun" story rather than "sci-fi," the tale is set in a dystopian future where a Donald Trump-like president has bankrupt America and China has called in its debts. The Asian giant now owns America and many Americans have immigrated to China looking for work. In this new world, a former American Force Recon member is hired by a Chinese billionaire to go into an American ghetto and rescue his daughter.

Outside of the whole "China now owns the United States" bit, that's the basic structure of the 1981 film Escape From New York, which starred Kurt Russell as a bad-tempered criminal recruited to rescue the President from New York City, which has been transformed into giant prison. Rowan Athale, the director of the 2012 thriller Wasteland, wrote the script and is attached to direct.

While Carpenter's dystopian masterpiece is the obvious frame of reference, Little America sounds like a fascinating companion piece for the Purge movies, a series that feels like it was reacting to the Trump administration before it even existed. In those movies, "the New Founding Fathers" rule America with an iron grip and celebrate the Annual Purge, a night where all crime is legal, offering the wealthy and the powerful a chance to prey on the poor and the, well, not white. If all of this makes you uncomfortable, buckle up – if Michael "13 Hours" Bay is getting in on this, expect your entertainment to get aggressively political in the years ahead.

Few filmmakers baffle me quite like Bay, a director who showcases a distinct voice and style in each and every one of his movies while also making movies that I generally dislike in almost every possible way. I'm simultaneously glad he exists and dread watching all of his movies. Rock on, Mr. Bay. You keep doing you, especially if that involves shepherding politically charged "sci-fun" (shudder) movies.

In any case, I'm going to watch the development of Little America with some interest.