The producers of Black Mirror have been approached about making their show into a movie, it’s been revealed. The science fiction anthology series began life on the UK’s Channel 4, before being bought by Netflix ahead of its critically acclaimed third season. A fourth run is right around the corner, with six new episodes already in the can.
For the first time, season 4 of Black Mirror will take the series to space, with an episode entitled “USS Callister”, which shares stylistic similarities and ship-naming techniques with Star Trek. Black Mirror’s future as a show may include sequels to previous episodes, and it may eventually be revealed that all of these dark stories take place in the same universe, according to recent rumors and press reports.
Now comes news that producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones have been approached, more than once, about taking Black Mirror onto the big screen. The revelation came to light in a new interview with Collider, which took place during New York Comic Con 2017. When asked directly whether they had been approached about a film, here’s what Jones said:
It sounds like Jones and Brooker made a wise decision when the film producers came knocking: they realized the worth of the work they’re already doing, and shunned the opportunity to cash in and make a big screen version. Adding to Jones’ comments, Brooker said this about benefits of steering clear of movie deals:
“We have [been approached] yes, flatteringly a few times. But in our maybe pretentious heads we sort of feel we’re already making a film, you know? They’re certainly structured like films and they’re all independent, so I don’t really feel the need to do that. The story is the interesting thing, not necessarily the size of the screen on which it’s played out.”
Given that they’ve managed to do everything from Star Trek-style space exploration to swarms of robot bees on a TV budget, it’s hard to forsee a time when Brooker and Jones would want or need to move Black Mirror to the multiplex and pick up a bigger budget. Netflix’s acquisition of the show helped the TV series keep going, and as it stands, the streaming service seems very capable of matching all their budgetary needs.
“And plus we don’t have the development hell that all movies end up going through. We have the opposite problem in a way, we have breakneck speed and we have to make six films a year effectively, is the way we look at it—which is a good problem to have. If a story idea presented itself that required like a $300 million budget and a two-hour runtime then maybe, but otherwise we do feel like we’re making a mini film festival with each season. So it’s hard to see what would make us stop doing that.”
Although some fans might like to see the series move to the cinema, the creators definitely know best. They’ve not steered the show in a bad direction yet, so they’ve surely earned the trust of their fandom.
Black Mirror returns to Netflix this December, according to reports.
