The Woman Behind the World’s First Road Trip Gets the VR Treatment in Emmy Contender ‘Trailblazer’ - Next, It Becomes a Feature Film
Daisy Ridley narrates the Singer Studios-created VR project, soon to be a feature from executive producer and “All Quiet on the Western Front” writer Lesley Paterson.
Sixty-six miles might not sound like a long road trip, but in 1888, Bertha Benz’s drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim in Germany was a historic journey. Bertha, the wife of automobile inventor Karl Benz, made the first long-distance drive in history, back when the vehicle was still a prototype, and the roads were barely there, and such a voyage was a revolution.
That journey is the subject of Singer Studios’ virtual-reality (VR) experience “Trailblazer: The Untold Story of Bertha Benz,” directed by Eloise Singer, who wrote the project with Jedidjah Noomen, and narrated by Daisy Ridley. The immersive project became available for users to try for themselves this past May via Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3, after playing at the Venice, Cannes, and SXSW film festivals, among others. “Trailblazer” is now a contender in the Outstanding Emerging Media Program category at the Primetime Emmys; Singer’s “The Pirate Queen,” starring Lucy Liu, received a nomination in 2024. The category launched under its current iteration in 2023, previously existing under different names for projects spun out of series like “Mr. Robot,” “Westworld,” “For All Mankind,” “Stranger Things,” and more.
“Trailblazer” uses an escape-room-style puzzle environment to put you in the head and at the wheel of Bertha as she embarks on her journey, guided by Ridley‘s narration. The 20-minute experience walks you through her workshop, inviting you to help assemble the world’s first motorcar, and take a drive through a recreated landscape of 1888 Germany. Her road trip was fraught with challenges that “Trailblazer” allows you to experience firsthand, all while coming up with the novel solutions that Bertha devised to complete her journey.
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