Evening Standard (West End final ed.)- 29th July 1997

Blackadder set for film role in the millennium
By Tim Cooper
Rowan Atkinson is set to follow his Mr. Bean film by bringing Blackadder to the big screen in a special new “movie for the millennium”. The comedy star, whose Bean film opens here next week, is now planning to revive his role as Edmund Blackadder. The fourth and last TV series finished in 1990 with the promise that there would be no more. However, talks are now under way with the original writer Richard Curtis, who also scripted Bean: the ultimate disaster movie, to revive him in a feature film. Curtis said: “I don’t think there will be another series of Blackadder but, with the turning of the millennium, there are rumblings that we might bring him back in another way.” Atkinson added: “Blackadder could have an interesting perspective on the millennium and the last 2000 years of British history, so we are working on something together. At the moment, we are just having meetings but we would love to do something.” The film would be Atkinson’s next project after taking a year off to focus on family life and his hobby of racing cars.