Black Mirror Bandersnatch

Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Fionn Whitehead, Craig Parkinson, Alice Lowe, Asim Chaudhry, Will Poulter, Tallulah Haddon DIRECTOR: David Slade CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jake Polonsky, Aaron Morton MUSIC: Isao Tomita, Edgar Froese PRODUCTION: House of Tomorrow

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Writing

The film was written by Charlie Brooker. He and Annabel Jones were approached by Netflix in May 2017 about making an interactive episode; Brooker had previously conceived of multiple endings for the third series episode "Playtest": a "nightmare mode" version of the episode, played when the viewer had seen the episode once before, would have ended with a much darker resolution.

Brooker initially envisaged the film as having one clear story, with a few different scenes at the end, until he had the idea of remembering earlier choices and incorporating them into later scenes.

The flash-forward ending involving Pearl Ritman was expected to be the one most commonly reached. Brooker remarked that he found himself in a similar position as Pearl in trying to work himself through pages of complex decision trees while writing the script. Several of the paths lead the viewer towards the choice of having Butler kill his father, though the viewer can avoid this. However, not all endings can be reached without Butler killing his father. McLean stated that this was done to give the viewer the sense of having their own control over the narrative. Endings in which a reviewer gives a star rating to Bandersnatch were designed to encourage users to go back, though there is no way that, simultaneously, the game can get a good review and Stefan can have a happy ending.

▸ Casting

Bandersnatch was directed by David Slade, who previously directed series four episode "Metalhead". It starred Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter, and Asim Chaudhry. Whitehead was only informed of the film's interactive nature after being offered the part. Davies was played by independent game developer Jeff Minter at Jones's suggestion, having previously appeared in a documentary made by Jones and Brooker. Some of Ritman's character was informed by Minter's own background.

Production took eight months, Netflix requiring assets to be locked in by the end of November 2018. A flowchart was initially used on set but actors found it overcomplicated the situation. Whitehead and Poulter both compared the experience to theatre acting. Slade highlighted Colin as the hardest character to understand, as one scene needed to be shot three times, with Colin having different levels of knowledge at each stage. Slade told Poulter to focus not on how his character knew information, but simply that his character did know.

▸ Production

Bandersnatch was released on Netflix on 28 December 2018 in 28 languages. Brooker compared the effort spent on Bandersnatch to that of four regular Black Mirror episodes. As a consequence, the fifth season of Black Mirror was delayed, its three episodes premiering on 5 June 2019.

▸ Filming & Locations

[Casting and filming] Bandersnatch was directed by David Slade, who previously directed series four episode "Metalhead". It starred Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter, and Asim Chaudhry. Whitehead was only informed of the film's interactive nature after being offered the part. Davies was played by independent game developer Jeff Minter at Jones's suggestion, having previously appeared in a documentary made by Jones and Brooker. Some of Ritman's character was informed by Minter's own background.

Production took eight months, Netflix requiring assets to be locked in by the end of November 2018. A flowchart was initially used on set but actors found it overcomplicated the situation. Whitehead and Poulter both compared the experience to theatre acting. Slade highlighted Colin as the hardest character to understand, as one scene needed to be shot three times, with Colin having different levels of knowledge at each stage. Slade told Poulter to focus not on how his character knew information, but simply that his character did know.

▸ Music & Score

The soundtrack was composed by Brian Reitzell, who worked on it by writing separate scores for each of the major storylines, then filling in music for the scenes not already covered. Reitzell had previously worked on music for some video games, but had not worked on modular music of the same complexity, where music was required to sync up with choice point transitions. He aimed for the music to be tonally connected but not feel static or reused. Much of the musical equipment he used was from the 1980s, including video game sound chips and modified consoles. Music was required for the choice points, video games, flashbacks and recap fast-forwards within the film. Reitzell worked with Slade to make the soundtrack feel atmospheric. The film also uses many songs from the 1980s, including "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, "O Superman" by Laurie Anderson and "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo. The viewer has some choice over music played, including a decision between "Hold Me Now" by the Thompson Twins and "Here Comes the Rain Again" by the Eurythmics.

▸ Marketing & Release

On 27 December 2018, Netflix released a 90-second trailer for Bandersnatch, establishing that the film would premiere the following day, on 28 December. On 3 January 2019, Netflix released two "featurettes" which look behind the scenes at the film.

There was much media speculation prior to the film's announcement, spurred by news that Black Mirror had been renewed for a fifth series by March 2018. Early reports in April 2018, including by Digital Spy and on social media, said that filming for Black Mirror was occurring in Croydon, asserting it was for an episode titled Bandersnatch. The film was certified by the Korean and Dutch ratings board prior to its release, the former reporting that it was 5 hours and 12 minutes in length.

The interactive nature of Bandersnatch was first publicly mentioned by Bloomberg News in October 2018, which cited an unnamed source that Netflix was developing an interactive episode of Black Mirror alongside several other interactive specials for release in 2018. A Netflix spokesperson, when asked by The Verge, responded with: "Thanks for reaching out! You have the ability to choose your own response from Netflix: this or this." The first "this" contained a link to a GIF from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt of a character saying "razzmatazz", and the second linking to a YouTube video of crickets chirping. No screeners were sent to critics in advance of the film's release, though Netflix invited select media writers to their headquarters about a month prior to release and gave them an opportunity to try the interactive film. In a November 2021 interview with GQ, Poulter stated that he deleted his Twitter account in January 2019 after being harassed by keyboard warriors who mocked his appearance as Ritman.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Awards Won: ★ Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie (71st Primetime Emmy Awards)

CRITICAL RECEPTION

On Rotten Tomatoes, 74% of 72 reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While Bandersnatch marks an innovative step forward for interactive content, its meta narrative can't quite sustain interest over multiple viewings — though it provides enough trademark Black Mirror tech horror to warrant at least one watch." According to Metacritic, the film received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 from 16 critic reviews. It garnered ratings of four out of five stars in The Independent and The Observer, and three stars in Rolling Stone. IndieWire gave it an A− rating and IGN reviewed it as eight out of ten. Liz Shannon Miller of IndieWire found it "hard-to-define" but "impossible to forget". However, Brian Lowry of CNN wrote that it was "a wildly familiar plot for a psychological thriller" and Spencer said that the storyline "isn't particularly memorable". Austen Goslin of Polygon criticised that the narrative is "like a cleverly disguised straight line".

The technical design of Bandersnatch was widely praised. Griffin wrote that the tutorial "does a solid job of explaining how the experience works". Miller commented that "the system was very smart about knowing when to essentially fast-forward through earlier storylines to move things forward". Overall, Rolling Stones David Fear criticised that the experience gave "little to hold onto after the fact" and that "the story doesn't matter". Holmes found it "especially poorly suited to being watched more than once". In contrast, Cumming reviewed that the medium "is bound with the plot", which "saves the film from pure gimmickry". Griffin felt "responsible" for Stefan's behaviour and "more and more invested in his story". Miller and Quinn both praised the self-referential "Netflix" branch of the story.

The characters were met with mostly negative commentary.