It’s Always Sunny star nearly unrecognisable in trailer for Social Network-like drama

Stephen Porzio

Having screened at several festivals, the movie has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

A trailer has hit the web for BlackBerry, a new comedy-drama movie starring Glenn Howerton about the history of the mobile phone line.

Best known for playing Dennis Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Howerton shaved his head to take on the role of Jim Balsillie, the businessman who formed an unlikely partnership with engineer Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel, This Is the End) to develop the BlackBerry brand.

The plot synopsis for the film reads:

“The ‘true story’ of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone, BlackBerry is a whirlwind ride through a ruthlessly competitive Silicon Valley at breakneck speeds.”

Following its premiere at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, the movie has earned rave reviews, with many drawing comparisons between it and the Oscar-winning film The Social Network, which focused on the founding of Facebook. At the time of writing, BlackBerry holds a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Along with Baruchel and Howerton, the movie also features amongst its cast Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride), Michael Ironside (Total Recall), Rich Sommer (Mad Men), Saul Rubinek (True Romance) and Matt Johnson (The Dirties), the latter of which also co-wrote and directed the film.

BlackBerry will land in US theatres on 12 May. It does not have an Irish release date as of yet.

You can check out its trailer below.

Meanwhile, here are some of the other big trailers released in the world of movies and TV this week.

A Thousand and One

This acclaimed US drama out in Irish cinemas on 21 April follows a mother (Teyana Taylor) who kidnaps her six-year-old son from the foster care system.

Asteroid City

Filmmaker Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel) returns with this sci-fi comedy-drama focusing on the “transformative events that occur at an annual Junior Stargazer convention in 1955”.

Boasting one of Anderson’s trademark ensemble casts, Asteroid City arrives in Irish cinemas on 23 June.

Beau is Afraid

Hereditary and Midsommar director Ari Aster returns with this surrealist comedy horror about an incredibly neurotic man (Joaquin Phoenix) who must embark on a bizarre journey home to visit his mother.

Beau is Afraid lands in Irish cinemas on 19 May.

Biosphere

This buddy comedy follows two best friends (Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown) who find themselves the last men on earth.

Biosphere does not have an Irish release date as of yet but is out in the States on 7 July.

Blue Bag Life

The winner of the Audience Award at the BFI London Film Festival, this documentary about addiction will be in Irish cinemas from 7 April.

Barry Season 4

Moving onto TV, Bill Hader’s dark hitman comedy returns for its fourth and final season on 17 April on Sky Atlantic and NOW.

Citadel

This new sci-fi spy series, which is reportedly the second-most expensive TV show ever made, premieres on Prime Video on 28 April.

Dead Ringers

Rachel Weisz plays twin doctors in this TV series reimaging of David Cronenberg’s cult ’80s film. It will land on Prime Video on 21 April.

Florida Man

Edgar Ramírez (The Undoing) stars in this Netflix series as a struggling ex-cop forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a mobster’s runaway girlfriend.

It will drop on the streamer on 13 April.

Obsession

In this new three-part adaptation of Josephine Hart’s novel Damage, an intense affair between a talented surgeon (Richard Armitage) and his son’s fiancée (Love/Hate’s Charlie Murphy) spirals into a dangerous, all-consuming obsession.

It will also land on the streamer on 13 April.

Scott Pilgrim The Anime

Sticking with Netflix, the voice cast of 2010’s cult classic film Scott Pilgrim vs the World will return for this anime series from the streamer, which is said to be “coming soon”.