When you hear the phrase “Trump-inspired dystopian movie,” what filmmaker springs to mind? John Carpenter, maybe. Bong Joon-Ho, if you’ve seen Snowpiercer.
Definitely not Michael Bay, the mastermind behind the Transformers franchise and the Benghazi action movie that inspired Ted Nugent to call for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to be executed.
But Michael Bay is indeed making a Trump-inspired dystopian movie, and it is being described as “sci-fun.” We assume this means it is going to be a very fun type of dystopia, as opposed to being “science fun,” which is what that portmanteau suggests.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures just won a “heated bidding war” for the rights to make Bay’s next movie. Titled Little America, it is an action-adventure story about an American military veteran who is hired by a Chinese billionaire to rescue his daughter from an “American ghetto.” Taking place in a near-future setting, where the U.S. has been bankrupted by an irresponsible president and Chinese debts, it’s being compared to Escape from New York.
Maybe Michael Bay will surprise us all with his political acuity and create the ultimate Trump-era blockbuster satire. More likely, Little America will be an Armageddon-style festival of gratuitous explosions, probably involving a scene where someone cries over an American flag. In the meantime, there are plenty of insightful and genuinely good movies you can watch about our current political situation. We recommend you begin with Children of Men and The Hunger Games.