The official trailer for BlackBerry, an upcoming comedy-drama biopic about the rise and fall of the first smartphone, has been released. The Canadian production stars Jay Baruchel as BlackBerry founder Mike Laziridis, who was the technical mind behind the company, Research In Motion, which released the first BlackBerry smartphone in 2002. BlackBerry also stars Glenn Howerton, known for playing Dennis on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, as the business head of the company, Jim Balsillie. After premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival in February to wide critical acclaim, the film is set to be released in theaters on May 12th.
IFC Films has released the first trailer for Blackberry which can be viewed below:
The trailer outlines the meteoric rise of Laziridis’ company after he connects with the more financially-driven Balsillie, as well as the rapid decline of their products once Apple’s iPhone takes over the industry. The film looks to be a mid to late-90s period piece and features both lead actors with jarring physical changes, with Baruchel sporting a silver wig and a bald Howerton.
Everything We Know About BlackBerry
The trailer also introduces Laziridis’ partner Douglas Fregin, who is played by Matt Johnson, the film’s director. Fregin delivers the revolutionary line “Picture a cell phone and an email machine all in one thing” in the trailer, which seems to convince the business shark Balsillie to join the BlackBerry team. Johnson and producer Matthew Miller adapted the script from Jacquie Nish and Sean Silcoff’s book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry.
The film, which was also selected for the South By Southwest Film Festival, will feature real-life businessman Carl Yankowski being portrayed by Cary Elwes, who is also in the upcoming Mission Impossible film. The cast for BlackBerry also includes character actor Saul Rubinek, known for starring in season 1 of Hunters, as John Woodman, Michael Ironside, who many will recognize for his various roles in DC and Marvel projects, as Charles Purdy, YouTuber SungWon Cho as Ritchie Cheung, and Michelle Giroux as Dara Frankel.
The movie is also leaning into the Canadian roots of its subject, as both Laziridis and Balsillie hail from Canada. Johnson and Baruchel are also Canadian, as are many of the actors playing minor roles as well, though one exception is American Rich Sommer, a Mad Men alum who will play Paul Stannos. The founders portrayed in BlackBerry do not have the name recognition that other tech biopics like The Social Network and Jobs enjoyed, but based on early reactions should be well received.
Source: IFC Films