One of the stranger film announcements of recent years was 1Up, a comedy about the world of esports set be produced by Lionsgate and Buzzfeed. While not much has been heard about it since the initial reveal, recently it has been announced that Elliot Page, who was initially slated to appear in the film, has decided to step away from the project, and will be replaced by a new actor.
The upcoming comedy is the first film to come out of a recent partnership between Lionsgate and Buzzfeed. Both companies have entered an agreement to collaborate on and release new films with social and cultural relevance to specifically target Millennial and Gen Z audiences. This pretty handily explains the choice of esports as a topic, as it is a brand of competition that is thriving with that particular userbase and entering the mainstream consciousness more and more.
For those who aren’t hip with the kids: esports refers to any kind of competition that takes place within the context of a video game. Players who are extremely skilled at games like Call of Duty, Overwatch, League of Legends, Starcraft, and more have long-held public tournaments in which they compete against other members of the community. As that system of tournaments becomes more formalized, with bigger companies and larger prizes, the broad overarching category of competitions based on video games has become known as esports and the business is growing quickly.
So it’s no wonder that 1Up feels like it’s the perfect subject to help connect with a younger audience. According to descriptions, the film will star a character named Valerie Lee who quits her sexist male-dominated esports team and forms a rag-tag women’s team in order to compete in a big tournament and beat those who pushed her out.
While it was initially announced that Elliot Page would be the star of the piece, it has been revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that Ruby Rose will be replacing them. Rose is perhaps best known as the star of the first season of the CW’s Batwoman show, which she chose to retire from, passing the role down to Javicia Leslie for season 2.
It is currently unknown why Elliot Page stepped down from the role, but it may be partially due to the fact that he signed onto the role before publicly coming out as transgender in December of 2020. Either way, hopefully, the new star can pick up wherever the production left off and everything continues to go smoothly from here on out.
1Up is now in production.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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