Netflix gets sued by Choose Your Own Adventure publisher over ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’

Choose Your Own Adventure genre is back in the spotlight with the recently released Black Mirror: Bandersnatch movie. And the series’ original publisher isn’t happy with this. Chooseco is suing Netflix for infringement of its “Choose Your Own Adventure” trademark. According to the official complaint, Netflix has been negotiating with Chooseco over a license of the series since 2016, but the streaming service never got permission to use it. Chooseco is asking for US$25 million in damages as the movie is said to benefit from its association with the Choose Your Own Adventure series without the company getting trademark. According to the complaint, Chooseco has previously sent a cease-and-desist request to the streaming company over the same trademark. Now, whether this will result in an actual lawsuit or be settled out of court is something we don’t know yet.

Netflix settled a lawsuit with the Satanic Temple in 2018 after a copy of the church’s proprietary statue appeared in an episode of the service’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina TV show.

Source: Polygon

Netflix brings ‘Choose your own adventure’ format from books to the screen

If as a kid you’d love reading the “Choose your own adventure” books, this new format Netflix is introducing is bound to be popular with the young ones of this digital generation. After two years of testing it out, Netflix launches its first of two Interactive Storytelling titles: Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale. Coming on July 14^th is the second story, which is Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. Netflix partnered with the likes of Dreamworks, American Greetings, Robot Chicken, and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios to help bring these complex, non-linear stories to life. Puss in Book has already launched globally, making it the first of its kind to be available on such a large scale.

The story will have the viewer make a choice at certain points and you’ll be given around 15 to 20 seconds to choose. If your kid is watching on a TV, it’ll be by using the remote, while if you’re on a tablet, they can tap on their choice. At launch, the right-to-left languages (like Arabic) won’t be supported but they will be coming soon, according to Netflix. It’s available first on TVs and iOS with Android, Apple TV, and Chromecast not yet in the works. However, the two shows will be available on those platforms as a linear story. We can’t say how popular the format will be but it does show us how Netflix is stretching its tech side and how storytelling can evolve in the future. While launching first with children’s titles, Netflix isn’t ruling out trying it out with adult content, too.

Source: Wired