LOS ANGELES — Actors Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura sought to understand how journalists cope with working in war zones as they prepared for their starring roles in the movie Civil War, which is released in US cinemas on Friday (April 12).

Civil War is a tense thriller set in the near future, as society collapses in the United States and war breaks out. Fictional Reuters photographer Lee (Dunst) and reporter Joel (Moura) take to the road with the aim of reaching Washington before it falls to a rebel faction.

"Something's happened, something really sad and dangerous has happened to do with journalism," British filmmaker Alex Garland, who wrote and directed Civil War, said in an interview.

"The reason I put them at the heart of the film is that there are really good journalists out there doing good work. They don't have traction in the way they used to have," he said, citing undermining from politicians, social media and bias-heavy news outlets. "I thought, 'well, I'll do something oppositional to that.'"

For Brazilian actor Moura, who previously starred as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series Narcos, journalism has a role to play in fighting polarisation in society.

"People like getting information from social media and all the fake news and the bubbles. Progressives only read progressive things and conservatives are the same... the role of the journalist in the world, I think, is very, very important," he said.