You’ve heard of “ripped from the headlines.” How about “clearing the shelves”? Prior to the Air Jordans release on April 5, Air, this year’s SXSW film festival is full of features inspired by beloved brands and the people behind them, featuring CEOs supporting casting and intellectual property battles like out-of-your-seat stuff. From snacks to mobile phones, here are the consumer products making their way to the screen.
BlackBerry
Based on the book by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff Missing the mark, BlackBerry stars Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton and traces the dramatic rise and fall of Canada’s late proto-smartphone, which thrived in the space between flip phones and the iPhone.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Created in 1974, the fantasy role-playing board game was long considered impossible to adapt, as it lacked a central story. Warner Bros. and Universal have both taken a stab. Now it’s Paramount’s turn, with a version set within the world of the game, from writer-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.
Flamin’ hot
Eva Longoria’s first album follows Richard Montañez, who said he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while he was a janitor at Frito-Lay. In 2021, while the film was going to shoot, the Los Angeles Times that strong story has been questioned, stating that Montañez contributed to the snack’s development but not its origin.
Tetris
The Apple film starring Taron Egerton dramatizes the long and painful rights battle and back-channel diplomacy that brought the Russian-made puzzle video game – created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov – to Nintendo in the 1980s, and how he liked the Game Boy. it on a global scale.
A previous version of this story stated that Flamin Hot had wrapped filming when the LA Times story about lead character Richard Montañez was published. The film had started production at the time of publication.
This story first appeared in the March 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
