TOBY MEAKINS CAUGHT UP WITH LEMONADE REPS TO CHAT ABOUT HIS DEBUT FEATURE CHOOSE OR DIE, HIS LOVE OF GHOST STORIES AND FILMMAKING.
Choose or Die was released on NETFLIX in April 22. It went to number 1 in the NETFLIX movie chart and hit the NETFLIX TOP 10 in more than 80 countries. More than 40 million subscribers completed the film in the first 30 days streaming
What’s the genesis of Choose Or Die?
Fox Digital studios (as it was then) commissioned a small collection of 2-min short films that were also Halloween spots for AMV BBDO/MARS in the US. Halloween is a much bigger thing in the States and they bought out 2 min slots on Fox channels to play out these films, our was SKITTLES presents FLOOR 9.5. We first played out in the World Series baseball game and twitter went crazy – people just weren’t expecting it. It was fantastic to find such a huge and diverse audience for a 2 min horror short and we wanted to do more.
We (the writer/producer/director team) were keen to do something else that was short form and that could have that kind of an impact, so we hit upon the idea of doing a short form series. At the same time Jeffery Katzenberg was setting up Quibi, a high-end, short form content streaming service for people on the go. It seemed the natural place to take it, Ridley Scott came on as an exec producer and Quibi optioned the project. We spent the next year developing with Quibi as a 12x 8-10min series all the way to greenlight stage.
How did the pandemic affect the development process of Choose Or Die?
Quibi launched in April 2020, a month after the pandemic began. It was a terrible time to launch a streamer designed for the content to be watched on the go on mobiles. They lasted a total of six months because obviously people weren’t going out, the world had changed overnight.
Fortunately, we got the rights straight back and the original financers, stepped in with the offer to fund it as a low-budget feature film. This was October 2020, we went to work immediately adapting the scripts with shooting taking place in during the third lockdown in March 2021.
Making a low-budget feature is tough enough without the COVID restrictions and additional costs, but because the larger shows hadn’t kicked off yet it allowed us to pick-up a great cast of actors such as Asa Butterfield and Eddie Marsan who were waiting for bigger projects to start up again.
Did you shoot on location or in a studio space?
Both, but we were shooting UK for USA which meant we tried to lean into set-builds as much as we could.
A big problem was that you can’t seem to hire a studio in London anymore, there’s never any available for any length of time, so we hired a warehouse in Wembley and built sets there. We also shot in Holloway Prison in North London, which provided a bunch of different settings, getting the most out of the locations, making them work as across different story locations/scenes – being smart with the time and money.
How much creative freedom did Netflix give you?
The film was initially an INDIE made on a small budget, the expectation was that it would do the festival circuit and pick up a buyer, but NETFLIX got interested early and bought it at the director’s cut stage, which was totally unexpected and fantastic thing for me as a first-time director. NETFLIX obviously gave notes, a film for a streamer is a different animal to a festival film, especially the 1st act and the pacing, so it was a bit of a learning curve for us, but they were very respectful and let us work it out.
Choose or Die feels like a love letter to the horror genre but also a callback to retro video games, were you much of a gamer yourself?
No not really, I’m a massive fan of ghost stories though, there’s a writer from the 19th Century called M.R. James who both the writer and I love. James liked to use cursed objects in his stories and we thought it would be great to take that plot device but use something more contemporary, like a video game. You know for Gen Z an 80s video game is an ancient object - we wanted to tap into that idea.
There is a wave of 80s nostalgia in mainstream popular culture, including Choose or Die, what do you think makes this decade so appealing?
I think we’re nostalgia mad at the moment, I’m not sure why the 80’s in particular has hit the zeitgeist, maybe because it’s just out of reach for the younger generations, or maybe because this is when the digital age was in its infancy, so there’s a tangible connection, a generational crossover between analogue and digital for the cultural powerbrokers.
The idea that we have to look back to better times feels like such a fallacy, in the UK during the 1980s unemployment was rife and things were really bad, I mean it was a pretty grim time. It’s one of the bigger ideas we explore in the film, the false notion that nostalgia can provide the answers to what’s broken in our society.
The one thing I really enjoyed about Choose Or Die was how it turned the power fantasy of video gaming on its head
It was always our intention that there was a moral tale in the story. We were railing against this idea that if you come from nothing but you work really hard, you will get somewhere, yes there are many instances of this but universally it’s kind of a nonsense, billions of people spend their lives working themselves into the ground and never step out of poverty.
The cards are stacked against Kayla’s character (the lead) from the outset and there’s nothing that she can do about that, there's no way out – no real CHOICE. By beating the game which is a terrible experience for her, she has earnt unlimited choice but at a terrible price.
Which process of making Choose or Die did you enjoy the most?
Shooting is by far the most fun. I mean, it's hard work, but it's the most fun. It’s a creative but also a practical problem-solving process. You’re on set every day, adapting, learning and overcoming the challenges that never seem to stop coming at you – I love it.
Do you have any future plans to make more features and would you like to explore other genres?
Definitely, I’m really fortunate that not only was my film bought by Netflix and went to number 1 for two weeks, it also turned a decent profit. It’s a great calling card for me and has opened doors to all kinds of people.
So, i’m talking to people about directing some TV and I’m developing several features - a ghost story, a sci-fi and a thriller, all with different writers/teams. There’s also a graphic novel that I’m working on with a long-time collaborator that’d make a fantastic video game.
First and foremost, i’m a director, and I need to be on set shooting, whatever the form. As long as there is the intention and desire to create something good I’m in.