The content will be related to the recent Apple TV+ show Prehistoric Planet, which debuted on the streaming service last month with Favreau as showrunner and David Attenborough as the narrator.
The report contains few other details on the nature of the Prehistoric Planet content for Apple’s headset, except that Favreau is “working to bring that show’s dinosaurs to life on the headset.” That being said, some kind of 3D immersive experience seems likely.
Favreau is an acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker, director and actor. His directing credits include Elf (2003), Iron Man (2008), Chef (2014) and The Jungle Book (2016), as well as most recently working on popular Star Wars series The Mandalorian for Disney+. He also been heavily involved in various capacities with Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
“[We] created this multiplayer VR filmmaking game where all the crew put on headsets and they were able to walk around and look around the Pride Lands and watch the animated performances and set cameras inside VR,” he told Jimmy Kimmel in 2019. “So it felt like we were making a live action film inside virtual reality.”
Speaking to UploadVR in 2016 about Gnomes & Goblins, Favreau said he wasn’t sure if he could see himself spending the majority of his time as a director working in an immersive medium. Nonetheless, it’s clear virtual and mixed reality has kept his interest since then.
According to industry analysts and publications, Apple’s mixed reality headset is set to be revealed either this year or early next, for a release in 2023.
Nearly four years after a small but charming preview project called Gnomes & Goblins appeared on Steam, WEVR is planning to release an expanded version later this year.
WEVR shared its latest trailer for Gnomes & Goblins with us for the UploadVR Summer Showcase, offering glimpses of this magical world only hinted at in 2016. You can see fields, rivers and congregations of creatures in new environments that may finally give us a deeper understanding of the relationship between the goblins and gnomes, as well as the world they inhabit.
The project was originally conceived in collaboration with Jon Favreau, the actor and director who has since gone on to incorporate virtual reality deep into the production of movies and TV show like The Lion King and The Mandalorian. In the case of the latter, it is no coincidence the now-famous “Baby Yoda” Star Wars character resembles the goblins in this earlier VR project. That’s because Favreau himself originally sketched the big ears and expressive eyes for WEVR’s Gnomes & Goblins. In other words, you might think of the cute character who reacts to your behavior, and picks up an acorn in this trailer, as a kind of proto-Baby Yoda.
Check out the new trailer here:
WEVR is the studio behind theBlu — a project that started as one of the earliest demos for room-scale consumer VR while offering an up close encounter with a gigantic whale. More recently, that project was expanded and became an attraction at Dreamscape Immersive.
We’ll bring you details as we learn more about the expanded version of Gnomes & Goblins.
Although The Lion King (2019) might have garnered a tepid reception from film critics, there’s no debating that Jon Favreau’s photorealistic remake of the 1994 original film roars in the visual department. It’s in part thanks to a production pipeline that uniquely relies on virtual reality to better incorporate traditional live-action story telling techniques to the computer generated world.
Technicolor released a behind the scenes video that delves into this process, which we learn was a natural expansion from Favreau’s work with VR on his other Disney classic retelling The Jungle Book (2016).
According to Technicolor, the pipeline that evolved on The Lion King essentially served as a something they dub a “translational system,” which acted as means of communication between several departments including planning, visualization, art, production design, and virtual production—and linked them to the visual effects and animation departments.
Image courtesy MPC, Technicolor
“Evolving the workflow was crucial,” says Francesco Giordana, realtime software architect at MPC. “How do you get people from different parts of the world working together seamlessly on a huge production where there isn’t a real stage? How do you capture every decision made and track everything that you’ve done? How do you define what composes your shots and carry that all the way through to post-production? The pipeline and tracking system are really the backbone of virtual production.”
Moreover, the VR implementation lets live-action directors step into a provisional version of the scene, replete with an environment, characters, and animations. This, we learn, gives them the ability to line up shots, rethink lighting, and make other changes as if the virtual set was entirely real.
In an interview with The Independent, director Jon Favreau likened the film’s production process to a “multiplayer filmmaking game.”
Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel lines up a shot using an HTC Vive | Image courtesy MPC, Technicolor
The Moving Picture Company (MPC) helped build the tools for virtual production, and used Unity to emulate live-action film production in VR. Although The Lion King was entirely computer generated—every environment is made digitally by MPC artists, with every character keyframe animated—it helped the studio create a suite of tools that Favreau says are now available to any filmmaker.
Iron Man director Jon Favreau just wrapped up work on the live-action remake of The Lion King. It looks like his next project could finally be a full version of Gnomes & Goblins.
This compelling VR experience released in preview form back in 2016. Favreau produced the piece alongside Wevr and Reality One. In it, you met a cutesy little gnome and eventually gained his trust as you explores his forest habitat. It was an amazing early example of character interaction in VR, and how captivating it could be. Two and half years on, though, we have heard a peep about the full version. Until today.
Wevr just suspiciously posted a link to the experience’s full webpage. The site itself still says ‘Coming Soon’, but its resurgence suggests we’ll be getting more news soon. The piece appears to have MWM Immersive and Golem Creations attached to it too. For now you can sign up to hear more about the project.
The timing certainly matches up. Favreau’s take on The Lion King released last week so hopefully he’s found a little time for this promising project. In fact, the director ended up using VR to film the Disney remake. His crew created a multiplayer VR game that helped them set the stage for the big screen.
It’ll be interesting to see how Gnomes & Goblins has developed with nearly three years of progress in the VR space since we last saw it. Could we perhaps see it launch on other VR platforms like Quest and PSVR? Perhaps we could see some experiments with Valve’s Index controllers?
Those who’ve been following the virtual reality (VR) industry since at least 2016 may remember a beautiful looking title called Gnomes & Goblins, created by Wevr, MWM Immersive and Jon Favreau (director of films such as The Jungle Book and Iron Man). A free preview was released and then nothing, with the title seemingly dropped and never to return. Three years later, however, and Gnomes & Goblins has sprung back into life with a dedicated website appearing.
Wevr recently sent a teasing tweet linking to the website which lists one important piece of information ‘Coming Soon’. While that is a little ambiguous, the tweet and site point to a positive outlook for the interactive, story-driven videogame.
The site describes Gnomes & Goblins as a ‘fantasy adventure VR simulation’, were you can “Encounter inhabitants of a fantasy land, build a relationship with them, become part of their society, and save them from their foe.” The initial 2016 preview put you in the middle of a wooded area, allowing you to interact with a tree-dwelling resident. As it’s free on Steam and compatible with HTC Vive and Valve Index VRFocus recommends giving it a look.
“The appeal is to have somebody who is not a gamer and never had a VR experience, be able to enjoy this without feeling that they need to have a certain skillset, but we also don’t want it to be passive cinematic experience where people just sit and enjoy it like a ride,” says Favreau. “It needs to be something where you engage in the way that you would in life. It should feel like you’re developing a relationship with these characters.”
As yet no new content has been shown, and while the concept was original back in 2016 the art of an interactive story has been well developed in 2019. The most notable of which is Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, with the first episode released in May for Oculus Quest (followed by Oculus Rift/Rift S), plus new details unveiled last week.
Hopefully, more information will be released soon for Gnomes & Goblins. When that does happen, VRFocus will let you know.
Back in 2016, director Jon Favreau, in association with immersive studio Wevr, released the Gnomes & Goblins preview, a demo of an (at the time) ambitious VR film project. While it was well received, it lay nearly forgotten as the years passed with no sign of a full release. Hope has been reignited thanks to a recently revamped website teasing that project is “coming soon.”
A testament to how quickly VR is moving; back in 2016, the idea that Jon Favreau (the director behind The Jungle Book (2016), Iron Man 1 (2008) & Iron Man 2 (2010), among others) was working on a VR film was pretty big news. An original story complete with immersive interactivity, Gnomes & Goblins seemed quite promising in its five minute preview which was released on Steam. Unfortunately the project’s intrigue slowly faded from memory as years passed with no indication that it was headed for a full release.
That all changed in the last week when Wevr, the immersive studio producing the project along with MWM, offered up a sly tweet to the project’s official website which has been completely revamped, now prominently featuring “coming soon” text at the top.
It’s likely no coincidence that this would happen now—shortly after the release of Favreau’s latest directorial project, The Lion King (2019), which used a purportedly groundbreaking virtual reality production process which Favreau himself likened to a “multiplayer filmmaking game” in a recent interview. And with the excitement surrounding new headsets like Quest, Rift S, and Index, it seems like an opportune time to revive the project.
While we still don’t know when it will launch, the revamped Gnomes & Goblins website now seems to have a firmer idea of what the VR film will actually be. While the original version of the site waxed about the experimental nature of the project—and rightly so, as the merger of cinematic narrative and interactivity in VR was still just barely being probed in 2016—the new version of the site quite concisely describes the experience as a “story driven game set in an enchanted world of gnomes and goblins with you as the protagonist” [our emphasis].
Indeed, since the debut of the Gnomes & Goblins preview in 2016, a handful of successful examples blending strong narrative with interactivity in VR have come to fruition with projects like The Invisible Hours (2017),The Great C (2018), and Star Wars: Vader Immortal (2019). Granted, with a clearer picture of the language of VR storytelling, Favreau and his collaborators are now faced with modern expectations; to what extent Gnomes & Goblins has or hasn’t been reworked to fit in today’s VR landscape won’t be clear until its launch, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
A little movie by the name of The Lion King is releasing in theaters this week.
The live action remake of the Disney classic is directed by Jon Favreau. It brings your favorite characters to life using cutting edge CG and technology. But did you know Favreau and his crew used VR to make this ambitious project a reality?
The director himself spoke a little bit about the process on Jimmy Kimmel last week. You can see him talk about it at the 8:45 mark in the video below.
“The other interesting thing that makes it look live action is we took all of those digital files, brought them into VR,” Favreau explained, “and created this multiplayer VR filmmaking game where all the crew put on headsets and they were able to walk around and look around the Pride Lands and watch the animated performances and set cameras inside VR so it felt like we were making a live action film inside virtual reality.”
It’s a pretty unique use for VR headsets. Favreau is no stranger to VR, of course. The director has long been working on narrative-driven VR experience called Gnomes and Goblins in which players interact with a tiny creature. We’re still eagerly awaiting to see what becomes of that project. We’d also love to see some of Favreau’s VR work on The Lion King but Disney hasn’t said it it might release it or not.
Elsewhere, though, Disney is soon set to debut its second VR animation, A Kite’s Tale.
Convincing the biggest names in the gaming industry to get into VR is going to be tough, largely because of the relatively low install base of most headsets in comparison to more mainstream devices like consoles and smartphones. Filmmakers, however, can look at the tech from another angle.
Yes, it’s still expensive to make 360-degree VR movies and other content, but VR movies might end up being driven by more accessible means like the location-based cinematic pods that IMAX is setting up. They can also run on mobile VR, a platform that already has millions of users across Gear VR, Google Cardboard and Daydream.
Unlike games, then, many of the biggest names in film have already spoken up about VR. Here’s what they had to say.
Steven Spielberg
As far as making big budget blockbusters that are beloved by the world over go, you don’t get much bigger than Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., and countless other properties. You’ll know that VR’s made it when he’s making VR films but, at least until then, he is making one about the industry.
Spielberg is currently working on an adaptation of Ready Player One, a sci-fi novel that’s practically recommended reading for VR enthusiasts. That said he has made some troubling comments in the past, stating that he thinks the freedom VR gives viewers might be “dangerous” for film making. He is working on a VR project too, though, so let’s see if that sways him.
Guillermo Del Toro
With films as celebrated as Pan’s Labyrinth, you might think Guillermo Del Toro is too big for VR right now. But the director also showed his blockbuster side with Pacific Rim, and he actually used VR to help him with it.
In the past, Del Toro has confessed his love for VR technology. Several of his most recent films, including Crimson Peak, have had accompanying VR experiences. If we were to bet that anyone would make a full VR movie in the near future, our money would be on Del Toro.
James Cameron
James Cameron has the two biggest grossing movies of all time under his belt with Titanic and Avatar, and the latter was a technical marvel too. With Cameron having revolutionized 3D and CG technology in Avatar and set to give us more of it with the upcoming sequels, you’d think he would be excited by the prospect of VR. Sadly, that’s not quite the case.
Cameron is the only person on this list that’s been almost entirely critical of VR so far. Most recently he claimed that any narrative art form that emerged from the tech could not be classed as a movie. Before that, he called it boring. Oh well, no Avatar VR for you.
Eli Roth
If you’ve ever come back from the theatre and had a nightmare in the past decade or so, there’s a good chance it was induced by one of Eli Roth’s gore-filled terrors. Here’s a director that doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to harming his characters, as best seen in the memorably disgusting Hostel. We’re not sure we’d want to see something like that in VR, but we might just get it anyway.
Last year Roth posted a picture of himself using an early HTC Vive developer kit, joking that he loved the experience so much he might stop making movies altogether. So, who knows? You might soon have a VR experience where someone is slicing out your tongue or something equally horrific. Resident Evil 7 already comes pretty close, though.
The Russo Brothers
You might not recognize the names Joe and Anthony Russo right now, but there’s a good chance you will in a years’ time. The directors have become known by Marvel fans for making two of the better most recent superhero films in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and its sequel, Civil War. Next year, however, they take the reigns of the Avengers franchise too, and they want VR to be a part of it.
Last year, we reported that the Russo brothers were looking into how VR might play a part in the upcoming Marvel mega event. They branded the tech as “pretty incredible”, saying it would change how people understood movies. That’s ambitious, and we can’t wait to see what comes of it.
Justin Lin
If Justin Lin is making a movie these days there’s a good chance that plenty of explosions will follow. Just look at his Fast and Furious films, or his action-packed take of the Star Trek franchise in Star Trek Beyond. But would the director ever bring his brand of explosions to VR? Actually, he already has.
Lin was the director of one of Google’s 360 degree spotlight stories, released last year. HELP is an action-packed monster driven adventure with production values rarely seen in the technology thus far. Don’t miss it.
J.J. Abrams
J.J. Abrams is very good at making things big again, be it Star Trek, Star Wars, or even Mission: Impossible. The director/writer has a penchant for creating likable, loveable movies that relate to a global audience. That’s the kind of person you want making VR films.
Abrams is both excited and cautious of VR tech, though, knowing just how immersive it can be but also the strain it puts on long-form entertainment. He thinks some experiences will work best in VR while others wouldn’t work at all. But he’s happy the industry is figuring it out, and that’s what’s really important.
Jon Favreau
Recently it seems like everything Favreau touches turns to gold. He kick started the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008’s Iron Man and his recent live action adaptation of The Jungle Book has been so successful that Disney has handed him the keys to a similar, but much more prominent kingdom in the form of The Lion King. He’s a busy man to say the least but, in his spare time, Faverau is already doing something magical with VR.
The director is working with Wevr on Gnomes & Goblins, one of the most intriguing VR experiences for the HTC Vive to date. It’s not a 360 movie but instead a full room-scale VR experience that could signify what VR movies may one day really be like. We can’t wait for it to grow into something bigger.
Director Jon Favreau has jumped into virtual reality to tell an original fantasy story set in the world of Gnomes and Goblins, an exclusive experience for the HTC Vive.
Veteran Director of Iron Man, Chef and more recently The Jungle Book, Jon Favreau has created a brand new project entitled ‘Gnomes & Goblins’, a realtime VR experience set in a magical fantasy world. And it’s out right now.
In collaboration with Reality One and Wevr, Jon Favreau’s first exploration of VR as a narrative platform is Gnomes & Goblins, an interactive VR experience that takes you through a fantastical world where you get to meet, and get to know, well, some Goblins (and possibly some Gnomes).
