Songbird, a pandemic thriller that’s beginning principal photography today (in the midst of a real pandemic), has added two new cast members. Bradley Whitford (Get Out) and Jenna Ortega (Jane the Virgin) have come on board the film, which also stars Demi Moore, Craig Robinson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Peter Stormare. The film is striving to be the first production to gear up in Los Angeles in the midst of the coronavirus, and recently ran into some trouble when SAG-AFTRA told its members to refuse to work on the film. The “do not work” order was lifted soon after.
Deadline has the news about the Songbird cast additions. The film is the first to shoot in Los Angeles since the COVID-19 lockdown, and, appropriately enough, it’s about a pandemic. Into the Dark helmer Adam Mason is directing from a script he co-wrote with Simon Boyes. As previously reported, the filmmakers have been “providing remote training” for the cast and crew of the film, and the movie is going to be made with social distancing guidelines in place.
Songbird is a found footage film, which suggests that it’ll be easier to keep the cast from being in close proximity (think of the Unfriended series as an example). Songbird “takes place two years in the future. The pandemic has not gone away. Lockdowns have been rolled back and then reinstated and it becomes even more serious as the virus continues to mutate.”
The film ran into a spot of trouble recently when SAG-AFTRA told its members to refuse to work on the film, but that order was rescinded. Regarding that news, producer Adam Goodman said:
“Finding a safe and practical way back into production has not been easy, however, our partnership with the guilds and unions has been a true testament to our great Hollywood community. Throughout the process they were awesome partners at finding a way to get their members working again, but always making safety and welfare the first priority. As artists, we need to keep telling stories, and times like these must be documented.”
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