Filmed in the summer of 2015, filmmaker Jeff Chan had hopes of advancing his 2016 crowdfunded sci-fi shortfilm, Code 8 into a feature film shoot late last year. That’s the proof of concept you now see above having risen more than $1.7 million dollars during its Indiegogo run and with well over 2 million views and already with one feature film under his belt on top of several other short film credits, clearly Code 8 was the next step.
Since then, with actor Robbie Amell starring and cousin, actor Stephen Amell serving as executive producer up to this point, thankfully all efforts have not been for naught with word from Deadline that XYZ Films have nabbed international sales rights. Chan will direct the film with the former Amell reprising as a struggling daylaborer taught by a criminal how to use his superhuman powers in a world where “specials” are the oppressed minority and constantly targeted by militarized police forces.
Sung Kang of The Fast And The Furious saga fame will reprise his role from the shortfilm as the cop who relentlessly pursues him while the latter Amell, who couldn’t appear in the short at the time due to his commitment to Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows, will now join his cousin in starring as well as executive producing. Screenwriter Chris Pare will also executive produce as well as Thick Water Entertainment and Resolute Films’s Lee Kim.
Code 8 behind filming in Toronto in May.