Remember BlackBerry? Remember how BlackBerry got its own movie? Well, now we’ve got our first trailer, which depicts the rise and fall of the infamous company that brought us the telephone that caught CEOs, celebritiesand even presidents in its grip.
If you weren’t already sick of it Hollywood dramatizations of technical SNAFUsdoes this new trailer have a great resemblance to other movies like The social network or Steve Jobs, with its washed-out color scheme and oddly sentimental take on young techies being led astray by the machinations of big, bad businessmen. Except, it goes for a more comedic angle, similar to Apple TV+has just been announced Tetris movie.
This is partly thanks to Glenn Howerton (definitely not a psychopath) energy from It’s always sunny in Philadelphia. Here, Howerton channels it to play Canadian businessman and former Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie. Canada’s own Jay Baruchel looks to star alongside BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis as an ambitious but woefully unprepared young man who is led astray, while writer-director Matt Johnson looks to go after Steve Wozniak vibes like co-founder Douglas Fregin. “It’s like the power,” bandana-wearing Doug tells Balsillie, trying to explain the “free wireless internet signal” in North America that no one had yet figured out how to tap into.
The film is loosely based on the 2015 book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry and talks about BlackBerry’s start as Research in Motion, before its phones became so popular that e.ghi made $20 billion in sales annually. Then President Barack Obama was a well-known BlackBerry userand Kim Kardashian famously held on to his BlackBerry after the iPhone debuted, even though she dropped it behind her Cool 9900 died in 2016, and she didn’t pick up a new one when blackberry started using android.
Both Lazaridis and Balsillie left RIM in 2012. Their fallout was notorious at the timeand it will be interesting to see how the film depicts the almost 20-year history between the two men.
Of course, with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone, BlackBerry’s fortunes immediately changed. Since then, the company’s phones tried to keep up on with theirs physical keyboards, even as they gradually shrunk over time. Hell, after 2022, old legacy Blackberry devices that do not run Android OS can’t even call 911 in an emergency anymore. PlayBook OS and PlayBook tablet also failed to be a true iOS and iPad competitor.
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Of course, there haven’t been any real BlackBerry devices for a few years now. TCL bought the rights to BlackBerry, but the license has moved on to OnwardMobility, which at one point said it would make a 5G Android-based phone with the old BlackBerry logo. Unfortunately, it seems that any hope of a new BlackBerry-branded phone is kout. Maybe the film will generate enough buzz for someone to pick up the rights. At this point, though, it might be better to just leave the old CrackBerry in its grave, finally in peace.
The film already had its debut at SXSW Monday, and it’s set for one wider release in cinemas May 12.