Back in early 2017, Netflix approached “Black Mirror” creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones with an unusual idea. The streaming service had been experimenting with interactive kids content, giving young viewers the ability to choose their own path through a story with a series multiple-choice questions that could be easily answered with the help of a TV remote.
Now, Netflix was ready to bring the same format to an adult audience — and “Black Mirror” seemed like a perfect fit. Except the two creators weren’t having any of it. During a recent interview with Variety, Brooker recalled his initial response: “No f—ing way!”
Jones agreed, in part because she had never really liked prior examples of interactive storytelling. “To me, they always felt a bit gimmicky,” she said. But when they started to discuss ideas for future episodes of the show a few weeks later, they came up with a plot that really only worked as an interactive movie. “At that point, it was pretty simple,” recalled Brooker.
The result is “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” Netflix’s first-ever interactive movie for adults, which debuted on the service Friday. Set in 1984, “Bandersnatch” is the story of geeky teenager Stefan (played by Fionn Whitehead of “Dunkirk” fame) who sets out to turn a multiple-choice science-fiction book by the same title into a pioneering computer game that also presents the player with a series of choices.
Early on, we learn that eccentric author of the original “Bandersnatch” book descended into madness while writing the multiple-choice adventure, ultimately killing his wife. And it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Stefan is struggling with his own inner demons — and single-handedly turning the book of a madman into a highly complex multiple-choice computer game doesn’t exactly seem to improve his mental health.
Brooker said he could empathize with those feelings. “What we were trying to do was what Stefan was trying to do,” he said. “There were many points where we felt it was driving us crazy.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety