Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Guardian film

Michael Bay to produce Little America, sci-fi adventure in Trumpian wasteland

Michael Bay, on the set of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, in 2016.
Michael Bay, on the set of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, in 2016. Photograph: Everett/Rex/Shutterstock

Michael Bay is set to produce a futuristic adventure about a Trump-esque dystopia.

The script, called Little America, was the focus of a bidding war in Hollywood and according to the Hollywood Reporter, it was picked up by Universal Pictures for an undisclosed sum.

Written by British film-maker Rowan Athale, who will also direct, it’s set in a grim future where the president has bankrupted the US and many Americans have been forced to emigrate to China to find employment after the country calls in US debts. A Chinese billionaire hires a former American Force Recon member to find his lost daughter.

Sources have talked about a fun tone and likened it to 1981 thriller Escape from New York.

Athale is best known for 2012 crime thriller Wasteland (called The Rise in the UK). He also wrote the recently completed alien invasion film Revolt, starring Lee Pace and Bérénice Marlohe.

Bay’s next film as a director is Transformers: The Last Knight, while his production arm is set to release another Friday the 13th reboot and a new Amazon series focused on Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan, previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.