The first trailer for the new BlackBerry film dropped today, starring Canadian actor Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis, BlackBerry’s founder, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie, BlackBerry’s former co-CEO.
BlackBerry tells the origin story of the once-inescapable Canadian cell phone brand, detailing its very beginning when Lazaridis hired Balsillie, to its dominance in the 2000s, all the way to its demise starting with Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone in 2007.
“The true story of the meteoric rise & catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone, BLACKBERRY is a whirlwind ride through a ruthlessly competitive Silicon Valley at breakneck speeds,” the movie’s description reads.
“I had one [BlackBerry] until about three or four years ago,” Baruchel told Vulture. “I adored them. But even then, it was this outdated product. It went from being the thing that created everything to being severely outdated, very, very, very quickly. And as somebody that stubbornly maintained mine, and held on to this brand loyalty — pretty much one of the only times in my life I’ve had any semblance of brand loyalty. I was othered basically instantly, like overnight. I think there’s something inherently tragic about these guys that are really significantly responsible, in a really significant way, for the way we all relate to each other. There’s a direct line from how we all communicate now, back to what these nerds did in Waterloo in 1996.”
BlackBerry hits theatres on May 12.
