Now that Mad Men is safely in the can, Jon Hamm is free to take a trip to London. Hamm has signed on to star in a feature-length Black Mirror Christmas special that Variety describes as “three interwoven stories of Yuletide techno-paranoia.” In a statement, Hamm says he is a “massive fan” of the show and he is “beyond thrilled” to be starring in what Channel 4 calls “the most mind-bending episode yet.” Oona Chaplin, her work similarly complete on Game Of Thrones, will co-star with Life Of Pi and Prometheus’ Rafe Spall.
Black Mirror was created by British satirist Charlie Brooker, who rose to fame with a series of pop-culture review shows that took the art of sarcasm to vitriolic new heights. Brooker has recently reinvented himself as a writer of straight drama, and describes Black Mirror as a modern update of the Twilight-Zone style anthology series:
The “black mirror” of the title is the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone. The series was inspired, indirectly, by The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s hugely entertaining TV series of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s…In Serling’s day, the atom bomb, civil rights, McCarthyism, psychiatry and the space race were of primary concern. Today he’d be writing about terrorism, the economy, the media, privacy and our relationship with technology.”
The Black Mirror Christmas special will air December 25 on the UK’s Channel 4.