Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell & Director Jeff Chan Talk ‘Suits: L.A.’, ‘Upload’s “Shortened” Final Season, Forging Their Own Sci-Fi Franchise In ‘Code 8’
deadline.comWhen cousins Robbie and Stephen Amell teamed with filmmakers Jeff Chan and Chris Paré in 2016, on the short film Code 8, they had little concept for the journey that laid ahead of them, which would see them build their own successful sci-fi franchise from the ground up.
After self-financing the 10-minute film and watching it garner over 7 million views on YouTube, the team moved to crowdfund a Code 8 feature via Indiegogo, far surpassing their goal at a take exceeding $2.5MM.
When the film debuted on Netflix at peak Covid, in April 2020 — four months after hitting theaters and VOD — it achieved such strong viewership that Netflix moved to finance a sequel itself, one that would mark the service’s first original English-language Canadian feature.
It debuted at #1 on its English-Language Films chart for the week of February 26 and brought the original film atop the charts once more, at #4.
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