Caffeinated Clint
TV co-stars and real-life cousins Stephen and Robbie Amell are uniting to produce and star in a movie.
“Code 8”, which has so far raised over 600k (after chasing only 200k) on crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo, will star the “Arrow” and “Flash” stars, respectively, alongside “Fast & Furious” alum Sung Kang.
The film takes place in a world where 4% of the population are born with some type of supernatural ability. Instead of being billionaire superheroes, most ‘specials’ live in poverty and resort to crime, forcing the police to become more militarized.
The story follows a young man with special powers (Amell) struggling to find work as a day laborer. After a dispute over payment, he finds himself in a confrontation with a police officer (Kang) and the autonomous robots backing him up.
The film, due late 2017, is based on a Jeff Chan short that featured both Robbie Amell and Sung Kang (“Arrow” star Amell couldn’t get free of his TV commitments to be involved, but will be in the movie). Chan will co-write and direct the feature version.
“Choosing the crowdfunding route, which is simply a part of the overall financing, allows us to retain 100% of the creative control in the project,” Stephen Amell told Deadline of the potential late-2017 feature. “Both Robbie and I are products of the studio system, both in television and features, and we owe most, if not all, of our success to that system. That being said, we think there’s a real opportunity to fill some white space in the sci-fi genre in a feature film that hasn’t been occupied yet.”
“From a practical standpoint, I was confident we could utilize our social media presence and make a campaign that would be up there with any other campaign promoting original IP,” added Arrow’s Amell, who is working on the Season 4 finale for that show. “The toughest thing to do in this business is take a new idea and get people excited.” And it looks like they have gotten people excited as the campaign for the feature length version of Code 8 pulled in $100,000 in its first 24 hours last month.
“Whether the feature is a direct pickup of where the short leaves off or not is something we’re keeping to ourselves,” Stephen Amell said. “My role was initially in flux depending on availability, but we’re confident that enough time will be carved out to really have this be a feature starring both myself and Robbie. We want it to be as advertised for all the people supporting the project.”
