Michael Bay says Songbird's do-not-work order was a 'money thing'

Michael Bay thinks the do-not-work order on 'Songbird' was caused by a "money thing".

The 55-year-old director is producing the upcoming movie - which is set two years in the future when the coronavirus pandemic is still present - but it was put in doubt after the SAG-AFTRA union ordered its members to avoid the project.

Michael - whose movie has now been given the green light - told The Hollywood Reporter: "We worked out the safety issues months ago, and we resolved (the latest issue with the unions) over the weekend.

"I don't even think it was a safety issue. It was a money thing."

The project - which features stars such as Demi Moore and Paul Walter Hauser - will become the first blockbuster filmed in Los Angeles since the virus brought the industry to a halt.

And Michael hinted there is a "special sauce" to make sure the production is shot safely.

The 'Transformers' director said: "We are literally going to be the first film to shoot in LA. And we have a kind of special sauce with how we're doing it where there's zero contact."

Jessica Lacy, who is selling the flick for ICM Studios, added that the Adam Mason-helmed movie is both "timely and terrifying".

She said: "It is very much actors on their own - nobody is interacting quite in the same manner in which a normal production would function.

"It's obviously timely and also terrifying."