'Songbird' First Look: The Michael Bay-Produced Quarantine Thriller Is About Lovers Separated By A Virus

While we've already seen a couple of movies that were shot and released after COVID-19 hit, the Michael Bay-produced Songbird is being billed as the first film to shoot in Los Angeles during the pandemic. The thriller stars KJ Apa (Riverdale) and Sofia Carson (Descendants), and is set a few years into a future in which the virus has not gone away, but instead is killing people at an accelerated rate. Check out the first photos from the film below.

Entertainment Weekly debuted these photos from Songbird, and you can see the poster over at their site if you want to check that out. Contrary to some previous reports, this movie is set in 2024, when the world is in its fourth year of lockdown due to a mutated version of the virus called COVID-23. There's a 50 percent mortality rate, and Americans are being forced out of their homes and into quarantine camps. Amid this chaos, Apa plays Nico, a motorbike courier with immunity to the virus. Despite not meeting her in person due to quarantine restrictions, Nico begins to develop a relationship with a young artist named Sara (Carson), who is not a damsel in distress, but, according to Carson herself, is "a warrior of hope." The actress says her character "represents this young generation of fearless men and women who are holding onto hope and who are the real true leaders, who will lead us into the future."

"It's Romeo and Juliet, but they're separated by her front door and by the virus," co-writer and director Adam Mason explained.

Speaking of previous reports, this EW piece fails to mention that Songbird was recently accused of not following the proper coronavirus safety protocols on the set. The movie, which apparently shot for just 17 days (previous reports stated it was a 19-day shoot), began filming on July 8, making it the first Los Angeles-based production to happen in the COVID era. A source on the set claimed that "some of the protocols went out the window" during filming, but that isn't addressed at all in this new report.

As far as the plot goes, in order to get to Sara, Nico "must overcome martial law, murderous vigilantes and a powerful, well connected family, helmed by a matriarch who will stop at nothing to protect her family and maintain her way of life." Demi Moore (A Few Good Men) plays the matriarch, and the rest of the cast is rounded out by people like Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Craig Robinson (The Office), Alexandra Daddario (True Detective), Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya), and Peter Stormare (Fargo).

"Even though this is the pandemic thriller and it's suspenseful and terrifying, the heart of a story is hope," Carson says. "It's the hope that is represented in Sara's character and the love between Sara and Nico. In our never-ending dark night, the songbird sings a song of hope." Songbird does not have a release date scheduled yet.