Rarely does a movie fall into the 'tech' category crossover as beautifully as Matt Johnson's BlackBerry, which is hotly expected to be a 2024 Oscars contender following its incredible reception since its May 2023 limited cinematic release – it's got a whopping 98% critics' rating on score-aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes right now.
But get this: BlackBerry is also coming to TV and streaming as a three-part mini-series this month. Titled BlackBerry: The Limited Series, Johnson has not only chopped the movie up into three series segments, but an additional 16 minutes of unseen footage have been woven into the mix (making a 137-minute total compared to the movie's original 121-minute runtime).
To me that sounds like a Director's Cut of sorts, albeit destined for TV and streaming, giving the original flick extra legs to reach a much wider audience. At least that's my hope as, right now, the deal is with AMC – meaning it's a North American audience (plus Australia, New Zealand, India and Spain, according to AMC+'s official site). And, having checked AMC UK's schedule, BlackBerry: The Limited Series is not yet scheduled to show.
If you are in the correct region, however, then The Limited Series will show across three consecutive days: Monday 13 November, Tuesday 14 November, concluding Wednesday 15 November, with each episode airing at 22:00 ET (19:00 PT / 03:00+1 if you're being a bit naughty and using one of the best VPNs from a UK source). It'll be available as all three episodes on AMC+ in full from 13 November.
I watched BlackBerry (as in the movie original, not the new series adaptation) whilst on a long-haul plane journey and, as someone who lived through Research In Motion's rise to prominence in the 1990s (and fall from the gods in the 2000s) it's a fascinating docudrama (well, screenplay "based on a true story" – read that as loosely as you wish), with Glenn Howerton's lead role delivery being the real star.
I do hope that BlackBerry: The Limited Series finds wider publishing rights with the other best streaming services – whether Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime or others (the pricing of each which you can peruse in the widget below) – because it's a really entertaining, funny yet heartfelt experience that well deserves its (surely forthcoming?) Oscars 2024 nomination(s). One to add to the wishlist for UK viewers for now...
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Mike is T3's Tech Editor. He's been writing about consumer technology for 15 years and his beat covers phones – of which he's seen hundreds of handsets over the years – laptops, gaming, TV & audio, and more. There's little consumer tech he's not had a hand at trying, and with extensive commissioning and editing experience, he knows the industry inside out. As the former Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint for 10 years where he furthered his knowledge and expertise, whilst writing about literally thousands of products, he's also provided work for publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Metro, and more.
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