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WASHINGTON, May 10 (AP) — Almost everyone knows about Steve Jobs, whose incredible vision, relentless drive and technological wizardry gave birth to the iPhone, a breakthrough delivered by the late Apple co-founder The world continues to reshape culture 16 years after the device was introduced.
But when Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone became the must-have gadget. It was the BlackBerry, a device so addicting that it became known as the “CrackBerry” as tech nerds and power brokers hunched over a tiny keyboard best understood with the click of two thumbs. operate.
Now, the BlackBerry is “the phone people had before they bought an iPhone,” a relic so irrelevant that the Canadian company that made it is now valued at $3 billion — down from a peak of $85 billion in 2008, At the time it still controlled nearly half of the smartphone market.
But its legacy is worth remembering — and audiences will have the chance to learn more about its origins in the new film “Blackberry.” A power struggle that turns into a morality tale.
The formula has spawned two Oscar-nominated films written by Aaron Sorkin, 2010’s “The Social Network,” which delves into the founding of Facebook, and 2015’s “Steve Jobs.” Silicon Valley icon.
Then came last year’s series of dramas that examined scandals at WeWork (“WeCrashed”), Uber (“Super Pumped”) and disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes (“The Dropout”), Amanda Seyfry It was Dein’s turn to star.
Unlike those biopics, “Blackberry” is a dark comedy centered around two affable but bumbling nerds, Mike Lazaridis and Doug Frakin, who can’t seem to carry out their plans, Until they brought “the computer in the phone” to a stubborn, foul-mouthed businessman named Jim Balsillie.
Although “Blackberry” is based on a well-researched book called “The Lost Signal,” director and co-star Matt Johnson admitted to taking more liberties with the film in an interview with The Associated Press.
Among other changes, Johnson cited timeline shifts that shaped the company’s culture through his vision of the 1990s and infused key players with “our own personalities and ideas.”
“But our lawyers won’t allow us to include anything completely fabricated in the film,” Johnson stressed.
Johnson, who had to do a lot of speculation about his role as the enigmatic Frakin, sold all his shares in BlackBerry Holdings — Research In Motion, then known as RIM — around the same time Apple released The first iPhone, and has kept a low profile ever since.
“Doug is the real cypher, he’s never done taped interviews,” Johnson said, which led him to paint Frakin as a “mascot that ties the office culture together.”
Ironically, Johnson got a lot of his ideas for how to portray Fregin from an early RIM employee, Matthias Wandel, who posted a video on YouTube criticizing what he saw in the “Blackberry” trailer as inaccurate. place. Prior to this, Wandel spoke extensively with Johnson about the history of RIM, and even provided a diary he kept during the development of the BlackBerry.
“I think when he saw the film, he was drawn to how many of his original notes were in the film,” Johnson said of Wandell. “It’s so funny that he posted that video, (because) a lot of my characters are based on him. I stole everything from that guy. I owe him a lot.”
RIM and Lazaridis co-CEO Balsillie becomes the film’s most intriguing character. The way actor Glenn Howerton (best known for his role on the TV series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) portrays Balsillie in such a way that he’s both the story’s main antagonist and protagonist, while dropping bombs in his irascible temper. move that turned the BlackBerry into a cultural sensation.
“It always felt like he was a weird guy who didn’t feel like he was a bit of a tech or business titan,” Howden said of Basillie in an interview with The Associated Press. Someone who needs to prove all the time, he can play with the big guys.”
Balsillie ended up embroiled in legal issues related to improperly priced changes in stock options — a tactic known as “backdating” — and was also entangled in 2007 over its handling of the compensation package awarded to Jobs. Both Balsillie and Lazaridis left RIM in 2012.
Now that the BlackBerry has faded from the public consciousness, Balsillie seems to welcome the new film’s renewed attention, even as he questioned some aspects of his character in recent interviews with Canadian media.
Unlike Lazaridis and Fregin, Balsillie attended a recent screening of the film in Toronto and even walked the red carpet with Johnson and Howerton.
“In a lot of ways, (Jim) is the hero, he’s the character (in the movie) that gets better,” Johnson said. “The audience just stays with him. It’s almost a psychedelic experience to be in the theater with Jim, and Jim is the one who laughs the loudest.”
Balsillie, who is teased in one scene for never seeing Star Wars, confided to Howerton that he loved watching Blackberry so much that it was the first movie he’d seen twice in his life. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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