If you watched the movie BlackBerry last May, you saw how Canada’s Research In Motion took its bidirectional pager and made it the indispensable tool for the striped suits set. And soon the BlackBerry migrated to smartphones and added features like BBM, which kept users addicted to their phones. The movie was based on the excellent book Losing the Signal which is a fascinating read for phone enthusiasts, regardless of their platform preference.
If you didn’t watch the movie, or if you did and really liked it, you have another chance to watch it, but this time as a streamed series. As part of the deal that helped finance the movie’s production, the film would be turned into a series for streaming platforms, so BlackBerry works so well as a three-part series with several 45-minute episodes. There are about 14 minutes of added material to the series that were not shown on the movie screens.
Dan McDermott, President of entertainment and AMC Studios at AMC Networks said, “We’re thrilled to bring BlackBerry to AMC and AMC+ in the form of this three-part limited series for television, featuring extended scenes and new footage that will surely delight fans of this animated and often hilarious real-life drama. This is a truly fun story with great performances, whether you are old enough to have owned one of these formerly ubiquitous devices or not.”
The BlackBerry movie will hit AMC as a three-day limited event starting November 13
If you’ve been a long-time PhoneArena reader, you know how BlackBerry went from top to bottom. It all started with the introduction and release of the iPhone in 2007, which made physical keyboards unnecessary, old, and outdated. You may want to check out the real-life responses to the iPhone uttered by RIM’s co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, to understand why BlackBerry never could capture iOS or Android.
Eventually, BlackBerry felt compelled to abandon its own operating system and switch to Android so it could benefit from the fully stocked Google Play Store. But there were many mistakes made along the way. For example, how could BlackBerry, known for the email capabilities of its devices, release its PlayBook tablet without an email client? Initially, users needed to use a BlackBerry smartphone to see their emails, contacts, calendar, and BBM!