After making a splash on the Festival circuit, BACKSPOT arrives in theatres May 31, 2024 via levelFILM. Today, we get a new Trailer.
Director: D.W. Waterson
Screenplay: Joanne Sarazen
Executive Producers: Elliot Page, Matt Jordan Smith, J.C. Davidson, Katisha Shaw
Producers: Alona Metzer, D.W. Waterson, Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, Martin Katz
Cast: Devery Jacobs, Evan Rachel Wood, Shannyn Sossamon, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Thomas Antony Olajide and Wendy Crewson
Logline:A driven cheerleader (Devery Jacobs) struggles to handle the pressure when she and her girlfriend are both selected for an elite cheer squad, in D.W. Waterson’s feature directorial debut.
(Photo/video credit: levelFILM)
By Mr. Will Wong
Marvel‘s ECHO is an historic venture in that it is the first time they are telling a story focused on Indigenous and hearing-impaired characters. The five-episode Limited Series debuted earlier this week on Disney+, giving space for Maya Lopez‘s (Alaqua Cox) story to be told as part of Marvel’s SPOTLIGHT series, bringing more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen. The character was introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021’s Hawkeye, as the adopted daughter of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). In ECHO, we see her being pursued by his criminal empire.
The red carpet was rolled-out at TIFF Lightbox for a special imagineNATIVE screening of Marvel‘s ECHO. In attendance were Canada’s own Devery Jacobs who stars as Bonnie and Katarina Ziervogel, who plays Taloa.
Ziervogel tells us about her journey getting involved with ECHO via an American Sign Language interpretor.
Ziergvogel: I remember when the casting call went out for ECHO and they were looking for a dead individual in their 20s. I wasn’t quite sure if I wanted to audition for this role because I’ve only acted in a few projects before. None had lines like this one would. So I decided to go for it and submitted my audition. Didn’t hear anything for six months, so automatically assumed I didn’t get it. I wound up getting a callback but again there was a three week waiting period, so assumed I didn’t get it. I finally got a call that the Director (Sydney Freeland) wanted to meet with me, and on the day if it wound up being cancelled. Yet again, thought I didn’t get it. It turns out that she didn’t want to meet with me and just wanted to offer me the role. I was so excited and never thought it could happen in my life. So to be in this Marvel production, this has been amazing. This is the best part.
Ziervogel also sheds some light how her character Taloa fits into Maya Lopez‘s world.
Ziervogel: Taloa is a deaf Indigenous woman. She fits into Maya‘s world because she’s both deaf and Indigenous. They decided to make Maya‘s mother deaf so that you can see the generational pass-down between them. You wanna see that she had a deaf family so that she wasn’t the only one in the family. Because we really wanted her to tie into that familial connection. So we wanted Maya to be able to live in both worlds, so that she has that deaf mother to look-up to and also her Indigenous family as well.
Canadian treasure Devery Jacobs has the distinction of having two separate roles in the MCU as Kahhori in What If…? and Bonnie in Echo. She tells us about what drew her to the role of Bonnie.
Jacobs: I actually had no idea what the character was going to entail. When the casting breakdown was originally listed, they had a fake name for her. Her name was Julie. They had some fabricated sides. My role was under lock and key. There was no Script. I didn’t know what I was auditioning for. I knew it was for ECHO and I saw that Sydney Freeland was at the helm and I had the chance to work with Sydney on Rutherford Falls, as well as Reservation Dogs before. So I knew it was going to be something special. And Sydney comes with such a distinct directorial voice. I sent in an audition and was able to connect with Sydney before the callback. She gave me a little bit of insight into the world. When auditioning I had to learn some ASL which I didn’t previously know before the project. The original reason I wanted to get onboard was because of Sydney.
Jacobs also tells us about reuniting with many of her Reservation Dogs castmates in ECHO and how that was different this go.
Jacobs: I come from Indie film. I am used to projects like BACKSPOT (Director D.W. Waterson came out to show support) which shot over 17 days as a low budget Indie-Canadian feature. But getting to go from Reservation Dogs where we shoot every episode over four or five days to working in the MCU – where we have all the resources at our disposal, incredible sets, beautiful cranes, unbelievable choreographed fight sequences – was really cool because it centered on Indigenous communities, specifically the Choctaw Nation.
I’m being spoiled right now and it’s never gonna happen again!
Watch our Chats here:
All five episodes of ECHO stream now on Disney+.
(Photo/video credit: Disney+/Mr. Will Wong)
No bad deed goes unpunished on Jan. 10, 2024, when Marvel Studios’ “Echo” launches on Disney+. Check out the all-new trailer and poster revealed this morning. The five-episode streaming event spotlights Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family and legacy. All five episodes will stream on Jan. 10. This marks the first Marvel Studios series to drop all entirely bingeable episodes at once.
“Echo” also stars Chaske Spencer (“Wild Indian,” “The English”), Graham Greene (“1883,” “Goliath”), Tantoo Cardinal (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Stumptown”), Devery Jacobs (FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” “American Gods”), Zahn McClarnon (“Dark Winds,” FX’s “Reservation Dogs”), Cody Lightning (“Hey, Viktor!” “Four Sheets to the Wind”) and Vincent D’Onofrio (“Hawkeye,” “Godfather of Harlem”).
Episodes of the series are directed by Sydney Freeland (Navajo) and Catriona McKenzie (Gunaikurnai). Executive producers are Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Victoria Alonso, Richie Palmer, Jason Gavin (Blackfeet), Marion Dayre and Sydney Freeland. Co-executive producers are Jennifer L. Booth and Amy Rardin.
By David Baldwin
Cheerleaders Riley (Devery Jacobs) and her girlfriend Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo, TIFF Rising Star ’23 and Share Her Journey Fellow) have just been selected to be part of an elite cheer squad. With a major competition coming up – not to mention needing to impress ice cold head coach Eileen (Evan Rachel Wood) – there is no room for either of them to mess up this opportunity. And Riley is starting to buckle under that pressure.
I am not a gymnast, nor have I ever tried to be. Thankfully, that does not matter because Director D.W. Waterson (in their feature-length debut) does everything they can to make it so that you feel all of the pain, excitement and fear Riley feels from start to finish. The camera is always moving, taking in Riley’s experiences, amd honing in frequently on shots utilizing a Go-Pro to really embed deep into her psyche. When she starts having a panic attack, you feel it with her. When she starts pulling out her eyebrow hairs, you feel it with her. It is frequently disorientating and intense, but that is deliberate. Waterson is not so much making BACKSPOT into a film so much as they are making a visceral experience.
Jacobs is revelatory here, excelling equally at the physical and emotional elements of her character. She dives fearlessly into every moment, with the extreme close-ups on her face brilliantly depicting the toil this training is having on her. Her innocent, intimate connection with Rutendo is terrific, as are the standard coming-of-age tropes Riley finds herself falling into. Where the Film falters is in what is happening in the background of Riley’s home life, and more specifically her school work. We only get to see fragments of it or nothing at all, with everything that is not just gymnastics (including Shannyn Sossamon’s thankless performance as Riley’s Mom) kind of fading into the background. The number of scenes taking place at Cineplex Mississauga gave me a giggle though.
All of that said, Wood is the Film’s not-so secret weapon. She relishes at playing such a fiendish and nasty character. But when Riley and Amanda refer to her as middle-aged, despite being in her mid-30s? That innocuous, throwaway of a line hit me square in the gut. I am not sure I will ever forget it.
BACKSPOT screens at TIFF’ 23:
Friday, September 8 at 8:30 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox
Monday, September 11 at 3:00 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox
Friday, September 15 at 9:45 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
The purple carpet was rolled out for the Canadian Premiere of AVENGERS: ENDGAME at Scotiabank Centre. The fourth and final film in the Avengers franchise and 22nd film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is projected to smash Box Office records this weekend in its debut, already earning $107 million worldwide before its release. It takes place after the destructive events that take place in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR after Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) snap of a finger which leads to half the living being wiped-out. We see the band of surviving superheroes come together to undo the destruction, including Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper). For the first time ever, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) appears in the Avengers franchise.
This tour-de-force finale from Joe and Anthony Russo would have made Marvel mastermind Stan Lee proud. It runs high on action and emotion and cannot be missed, even if you have missed some installments of the MCU!
See the Trailer:
What would you have done to be at the World Premiere of #AvengersEndgame? pic.twitter.com/EHs8OcCqCa
— MR. WILL WONG 📸 (@mrwillw) April 24, 2019
While the World Premiere in Los Angeles earlier this week brought out the Cast, including faces of present and past in the MCU, Toronto had some familiar faces come out to support the affair including two Toronto Raptors riding the high of their victory Tuesday night, landing them second in the Eastern Conference, Fred Vanvleet and Danny Green. Wynonna Earp star Dominique Provost-Chalkley who starred in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, Director Jonathan Wright, Youtube stars Epic Meal Time, Jade Hassouné, star of popular series SHADOWHUNTERS, Holmes and Holmes’ Mike Holmes Jr., Lost Girl star Kris Holden-Ried, American Gods star Devery Jacobs and Will Kemp who is filming Netflix figure skating series SPINNING OUT currently in the City.
See some Snaps from the night:
Devery Jacobs
Dominique Provost-Chalkley
Marvel Entertainment Canada release AVENGERS: ENDGAME Friday, April 26, 2019.
(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong/Marvel Entertainment Canada)
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