Shubhabrata Dutta
Cody Lightning has found his sophomore directorial feature! The Cinemaholic has learned that the filmmaker will helm the sports drama ‘Smudge the Blades.’ The narrative follows an Indigenous youth hockey club and explores community-driven experiences. Lightning wrote the screenplay with Samuel Miller. Principal photography will start in Edmonton, Alberta, on March 17, 2025, and wrap up on May 3, 2025.
Lightning is partnering with Indigenous-owned sportswear brand Smudge the Blades. The label’s founder, Harlan Kingfisher, is part of the project’s crew. Considering the filmmaker’s Cree background and experience as a hockey coach, the film is poised to be an authentic Indigenous hockey drama. Telefilm Canada is financially backing the project.
As an actor, Lightning’s last outing was as Micah Tso in Netflix’s basketball film ‘Rez Ball,’ a partial adaptation of the non-fiction book ‘Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation’ by journalist Michael Powell. He also played Biscuits, cousin of Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox), in Marvel Studios’ Disney+ miniseries ‘Echo.’
Lightning made his directorial debut with ‘Hey, Viktor!’ It is a mockumentary comedy that follows a fictionalized version of himself. The narrative explores his struggles to restart his career by making a sequel to the film ‘Smoke Signals,’ in which he debuted as a child actor. His upcoming projects include the FX series ‘The Sensitive Kind’ and Roseanne Supernault’s comedy movie ‘Dusk & Dawn.’ Samuel Miller wrote and directed the short film ‘Tensi’ (2017), starring Rachel Marsh and Kristian Ventura. He also produced and co-wrote ‘Hey, Viktor!’ with Lightning.
Edmonton previously hosted the filming of HBO’s ‘The Last of Us,’ Jesse Palangio’s ‘Blood and Snow,’ and Lowell Dean’s ‘Dark Match,’ a wrestling horror drama starring Chris Jericho. Upcoming projects to be shot in Alberta include E. Elias Merhige’s feature film ‘Howl,’ the Paramount+ mystery series ‘JonBenét,’ and the Netflix series ‘Ragdoll.’
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