Netflix ended 2018 with a bang, as two films “Bird Box” and “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” seemed to explode on social media, leading the streaming service to have the two most-talked-about films of the month. However, with that level of notoriety comes the inevitable push back. And in the case of ‘Bandersnatch,’ Netflix got hit with a lawsuit for its troubles.
The company behind the classic “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, Chooseco, has decided that Netflix infringed on its copyright in the new film ‘Bandersnatch.’ The story of the film, follows a young programmer, as he attempts to create a game inspired by the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books of his youth. The film then creates its own CYOA option, as viewers get to make the choices in the film, leading to multiple potential outcomes.
READ MORE: ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’: Producer Explains The Meta Ending & How It Came To Be
The company filed a suit, claiming (via Deadline):
“Netflix intentionally and willfully used Chooseco’s famous mark in order to benefit from the positive associations with — and nostalgia for — the brand by adults who read the series as youngsters.”
Obviously, with more money than just about everyone, Netflix can make this lawsuit disappear, as it did with the “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” Satanic statue lawsuit from 2018. However, moving forward, it’ll be interesting to see how the streaming service proceeds with similar CYOA-esque projects.
Speaking of ‘Bandersnatch,’ “Black Mirror” executive producer Charlie Brooker opened up to Variety about pushing the technological limits of Netflix for the interactive film and gave a few examples of some experiments that the team wanted to include but couldn’t figure out how to implement.
“One of the things [‘Netflix’] sort of wanted us to do was test the limits of what they could do because it’s a good experimental test case,” Brooker said. “Quite often we’d say, ‘Is this possible?’ They’d never say no. They’d say, ‘Maybe, let’s try and find out.’ Nine times out of 10, they would then work out a way in which it could happen.”
However, there were a few instances (those 10th out of 10 times) when Netflix came up short. One such example is how Brooker hoped to allow viewers the chance to explore Stefan’s apartment on their own. Apparently, the producer had the whole space mapped out. Another stumbling point was when Stefan put a VHS in the VCR. Brooker and Co. originally hoped to allow the viewers to pick which film he would watch, then allow the entire video to play. However, it seems that time restrictions made this an impossibility. And finally, the producer hoped to allow for “achievements” that could be earned and shared by viewers, similar to how they are given in modern video games. According to the report, Brooker’s idea was shot down the rest of the team, due to the extremely complicated nature of the “achievements.”
Either way, lawsuit and limitations aside, ‘Bandersnatch’ succeeded in getting people to talk about “Black Mirror” in a way that hasn’t happened before. And with the fifth season coming in 2019, Netflix could have more viewers for its anthology series than ever before.