UPDATE: 5 Key Insights from Director Jon Favreau About the Power of Virtual Reality
Director of Iron Man and Jungle Book Creates Enchanted VR Title With Wevr
When Jon Favreau’s name is mentioned (and if you are a real film buff), there is an instant connection to high quality titles such as Iron Man and Jungle Book, so it may be a bit of a pleasant surprise to learn that he has created a virtual reality (VR) title. Made with Wevr as an original production in partnership with Reality One, Gnomes & Goblins is coming to the HTC Vive this week – but just as a preview.
What Gnomes & Goblins is all about is exploration of an enchanted VR world where you can become friendly and close with a being who lives in the world and thus delve into the surreal world that contains so many compartments.
Favreau said about his inspiration to take on the new medium: “I had been been playing around with this basic world and the characters of Gnomes & Goblins but I wasn’t sure how I would apply them. Wherever I thought it might go, the medium just didn’t seem right. And then I went over to Wevr and tried out theBlu on the Vive.
“Presence was the most interesting phenomenon when I experienced it for the first time. Knowing that you are seeing something artificial and yet your brain is fooled into believing that it’s real. And that is unique to VR: something that feels not so much like a game and not so much cinematic, but where you have the opportunity to explore the same feelings you get while lucid dreaming, and it really lent itself to this world and its characters.”
The director himself then explained who this movie is particularly aimed at: “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 skill set, but we also don’t want it to be passive cinemative experience where people just sit and enjoy it like a ride. It should feel like you’re developing a relationship with these characters.”
The release date for the Gnomes & Goblins preview is 8th September, and it will be free for the HTC Vive.
For more on the latest releases, as well as all the news updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
‘Iron Man’ Director Jon Favreau’s First VR Project ‘Gnomes & Goblins’ Looks Delightful
Veteran Director of Iron Man, Chef and more recently The Jungle Book, Jon Favreau has now teamed up with veteran VR production house WEVR on a brand new project entitled ‘Gnomes & Goblins’, a realtime VR experience set in a magical fantasy world.
The interest from Hollywood and its key players in immersive technologies seems to be growing apace, with studios and creatives keen to explore the artistic and, of course, financial potential of VR.
The latest convert to virtual reality is Jon Favreau, a Writer, Director, Producer and Actor you will almost certainly have encountered – unless you happen to have sworn yourself off all motion picture based entertainment for the last 20 years. He’s best known for his Directorial duties on films like Iron Man (2008) and The Jungle Book (2016), but you may have encountered his front-of-camera skills in many films from Hoffa (1992) to Chef (2014 – a movie he also wrote, directed and produced). Favreau is one of those sickeningly talented people then, and now he’s turning his attention to VR.
Favreau’s first project in virtual reality is a new collaboration with Wevr, developers of the enchanting underwater experience theBlu and Reality One. It’s described as an “opportunity to explore an enchanted VR world,” seemingly created by Favreau where you get to meet and “developer a personal relationship” with the worlds characters. Favreau says that he didn’t want the project to be a “passive cinematic experience where people just sit and enjoy it like a ride,” and importantly “where you have the opportunity to explore the same feelings you get while lucid dreaming.”
Gnomes & Goblins is formed from ideas that Favreau had been toying with already, but it was Wevr’s theBlu as demo’d on the HTC Vive which showed him that VR was the right medium to do the project justice. “I went over to Wevr and tried out theBlu on the Vive. Presence was the most interesting phenomenon when I experienced it for the first time,” says Favreau, ” Knowing that you are seeing something artificial and yet your brain is fooled into believing that it’s real.” As Favreau was looking for an independent collaborator with a “lab feel”, the partnership with Wevr was born.
If all of this sounds mighty intriguing, you won’t have to wait much longer to see what Favreau and Wevr have been working on for the last year. Gnomes & Goblins is set to appear via Wevr Transport, Steam and Viveport on September 8th in preview form, so you’ll be able to step into the world for yourself next week.
The post ‘Iron Man’ Director Jon Favreau’s First VR Project ‘Gnomes & Goblins’ Looks Delightful appeared first on Road to VR.
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