Michael Bay, cinematic auteur du jour, will produce a new feature film for Sony: an adaptation of the audiobook Armored by Mark Greaney. Its story follows a grizzled security expert (Is there any other kind?) as he helps protect a heavily armed convoy shuttling UN delegates across the Sierra Madre. As they find themselves under attack by both the drug cartels and the corrupt police, a battle for survival ensues. In a word: a prime Bayhem material. In the past, Greaney penned military thrillers featuring Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Additionally, he wrote a series of novels featuring Gray Man, a freelance assassin and former CIA operative.
But this isn’t Bay’s sole current project. Inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, Bay is working on a pandemic thriller titled Songbird. Based on a script by Simon Boyes (Broken, Misconduct), the film posits a grim near future in which lockdowns and quarantines continue as the virus keeps mutating. Adam Mason (Blood River, The Devil’s Chair) will direct the film. News articles claim production starts in five weeks, but it isn’t exactly clear how will the shooting take place. At the moment, Los Angeles is still in lockdown, and all the productions are halted.
