ErosSTX’s acquisition Songbird will be skipping theaters in exchange for a Premium VOD release starting Friday, December 11.
STX picked up the KJ Apa and Sofia Carson pandemic thriller produced by Invisible Narratives back in August. The movie was one of the first to actually shoot in Los Angeles during the pandemic under newly created COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Songbird will now be available for $19.99 for a 48-hour rental on all transactional platforms. Following Songbird‘s nesting on PVOD, it will premiere on a major streaming service in 2021.
From producer Michael Bay and director Adam Mason, Songbird follows Riverdale‘s Apa who stars as Nico, a bicycle messenger in a near post-apocalyptic future where COVID-19 has mutated to COVID-23. He’s smitten with his girlfriend Sara (Carson), who he hasn’t been able to see during the pandemic. Complicating life greatly is that the government is snatching up people who have the virus and tossing them into camps. Demi Moore, Craig Robinson, Bradley Whitford, Peter Stormare, Alexandra Daddario and Paul Walter Hauser also star.
Mason co-wrote the script with Simon Boyes (Misconduct). Invisible Narratives’ Adam Goodman, Andrew Sugerman and Eben Davidson and Catchlight Studios’ Jeanette Volturno, Jason Clark and Marcei Brown also produced.
“The pandemic has affected every aspect of our business, from production to release, but Songbird demonstrates that a nimble studio like STX can find effective and profitable ways to make their movies work, as we have similarly with Greenland and My Spy during these challenging times,” STXfilms Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson said Monday. “The show must go on. Songbird is a thrilling movie that will speak to audiences in this moment as it keeps them on the edge of their seats.”
STX sold My Spy, once intended as a theatrical release, to Amazon during the spring. The release was so popular on streaming that STX is in early talks to do a sequel with Dave Bautista. As we first told you, STX pivoted with its Gerard Butler action thriller Greenland stateside, pulling the feature off the theatrical release calendar for a December 18 PVOD release followed by a HBO Max release in 2021.