What were the Netflix creators really thinking when making ‘Amy Bradley Is Missing’?
Netflix documentaries have always thrown light into the darkest alleyways. And while doing something similar with Amy Bradley Is Missing, it has rekindled interest in the unsolved missing person’s case. With Netflix revisiting Bradley’s disappearance 23 years ago during a seven-day cruise trip, her brother has finally opened up about the matter, pulling in viewers in mobs, all in search of that one question: Where is Amy?
Tons of unanswered questions still swirl around Bradley’s mysterious vanishing. And if anything, there’s a renewed probe around the matter since Amy Bradley Is Missing was released on Netflix. While the debates and discussions persist, what made Netflix creators choose Bradley’s story as the subject of their Netflix documentary?
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, creators Ari Mark and Phil Lott shed light on how Amy Bradley Is Missing came into being. Speaking of how Mark chanced upon the missing case, he said, “People know about Amy Bradley’s story if you’re in the true-crime, amateur sleuth world, which fortunately or unfortunately – however you want to look at it – I am.”
With Ample Entertainment, Mark and his team have produced the “cool stuff.” Yet, in order to make and direct a story from scratch, they needed something “non-derivative,” something that would “check the boxes from an industry standpoint.” But casting aside his industrial POV, when he met the Bradley family and had a talk, all he really wanted to do was “help.”
Plus, having seen the world of true-crime adaptations evolve and the platforms offering them the exposure, Mark realised that if they could move the needle, something fruitful might culminate. Phil Lott chimed in, saying, “This is a case that has existed in the true-crime-o-sphere, but it also exists in the fear of every parent.” The Amy Bradley missing case is so spine-chilling, it’s every parent’s nightmare.
Especially observing the time that has passed since Bradley went missing, choosing the topic was not a task. The challenge was looking into the eyes of the family that has lost one of their own. So, addressing the missing case was, in a way, mitigating the pain that “this family has been experiencing every single waking hour.” Mark revealed approaching Amy Bradley Is Missing with a mindset that they could solve the case.
“It was initially the curiosity, then the challenge of ‘Ooh, maybe we could find her,’” he said. Even while meeting the family members, FBI agents, and the eyewitnesses, he felt convinced that Bradley would be found. While only time will tell if their instincts are true, for those still out of the loop, Amy Bradley Is Missing is currently streaming on Netflix.