Blackberry, the comedy-drama movie starring Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton as the two men responsible for the launch of the world’s first smartphone, will premiere on AMC next month, but there’s a twist. AMC announced today that Blackberry has been transformed into a three-part limited series.
The feature-film version of Blackberry spanned two hours, but the series will include additional never-before-seen footage to stretch across three 60-minute episodes. While this may be an odd development, it could lead to more people watching the story. Although Blackberry received rave reviews from critics (98% on Rotten Tomatoes), it didn’t exactly blow up at the box office, grossing just $2.8 million worldwide on the $5 million budget.
BlackBerry was directed by Matt Johnson (Operation Avalanche), who also penned the screenplay with Matthew Miller (Nirvana The Band The Show). The film is based on Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s best-selling nonfiction book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry. The film tells “The true story of the meteoric rise & catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone, BlackBerry is a whirlwind ride through a ruthlessly competitive Silicon Valley at breakneck speeds.“
Our own Chris Bumbray was a big fan of Blackberry, even calling it “one of the best English-Canadian films” he’s seen in a long time. “Like [The Social Network], Johnson’s made BlackBerry effective because he never loses sight of the human drama at the film’s heart while depicting the company’s rise and fall with a documentarian’s eye,” Bumbray wrote in his review. “While many will call it a movie about BlackBerry, it’s a lot more universal than that in how it depicts how the intoxicating aspects of success and money can often make you blind to the moral compromises you’ve made on the way.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.
Blackberry: The Limited Series will premiere on AMC and AMC+ on November 13th.