At last, a film that dares to show the positive side of living in virtual reality. Steven Spielberg’s future shocker, about people using VR to escape hell on Earth, promises to be everything The Matrix wasn’t
It’s 2045 and Earth has been brought to its knees by catastrophic climate change and a worldwide energy crisis, not to mention famine, poverty, disease and war. In short, everything we presently fear has come to pass. It is the ultimate dystopian future.
That’s the premise of Ready Player One, a work of science fiction from 2011 by Ernest Cline and now a movie by Steven Spielberg. Wade Watts, the story’s protagonist, is born into a generation that feels failed by reality. The only thing making life bearable is the OASIS, a globally networked virtual reality world. Using a visor and a set of haptic-feedback gloves, Wade and millions like him enter its realm daily.
The Matrix presents VR as a form of sensory prison … from the cradle we are locked away
Today VR startup Dreamscape Immersive announced via TechCrunch that they’d secured a Series B funding round of $20 million, led by AMC. The company previously gained funding from the likes of Steven Spielberg, Warner Bros., MGM, IMAX, and 21st Century Fox.
Most people that take the time and energy to really try VR and give it a chance see the potential, but getting headsets onto the faces of users is the biggest hurdle still. VR devices are bulky, expensive, and hard to come by, but millions of people go to the movies, even if that industry is struggling.
The deal also includes a large partnership with AMC to bring their full-body capture technology for multiple simultaneous users to various theaters across both the United States and United Kingdom starting with up to six locations over the next year and a half. AMC is also investing into a content fund to help Dreamscape Immersive create original, exciting content for their location-based experience centers at theaters. These experiences will likely take the form of movie and IP tie-in content.
Virtual reality is the future of a lot of industries. We’re already seeing ways that it can be used to enhance and revolutionize video games, medical procedures, therapy, business training, long-distance communication, and so much more. And now it’s looking more and more like the Hollywood-fueled entertainment industry is next on that list.
What do you think of the deal? Let us know down in the comments below!
Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg expressed his opinion on the developing influence of virtual reality (VR) to a crowd at San Diego Comic Con as he presented Ready Player One, a film that deals with VR as an escape from a dystopian world.
Ready Player One is an adaptation of a book by Earnest Cline that tells the story of a young man who escapes from the awful future of 2044 by immersing himself in 1980’s pop culture while searching for a mysterious ‘Easter Egg’ that may just be his way out of his current situation.
“It’s the most amazing flash forward and flashback at the same time – to a decade I was very much involved in as well as a future that I think is out there awaiting all of us whether we like it or not,” Spielberg said.
Spielberg previously warned of the ‘danger’ of VR at the Cannes Film Festival, where some VR films where making their debut. Spielberg said at the time: “I think we’re moving into a dangerous medium with virtual reality. “The only reason I say it is dangerous is because it gives the viewer a lot of latitude not to take direction from the storytellers but make their own choices of where to look. I just hope it doesn’t forget the story when it starts enveloping us in a world that we can see all around us and make our own choices to look at.”
Being involved with directing Ready Player One seems to have changed Spielberg’s mind somewhat, as at SDCC he referred to VR as a blank canvas of opportunities where people can: “Do anything you can possibly imagine”.
Ready Player One is due to be released on 30th March, 2018.
VRFocus will bring you further news on Ready Player One and other VR-related projects as it becomes available.
Ready Player One, the upcoming film directed by Steven Spielberg based on the VR-centric novel by Ernest Cline, just saw its first teaser trailer, released at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
As written by Cline, Ready Player One follows Wade Watts on his journey through the OASIS, a pervasive virtual reality program that nearly everyone on the planet visits using their VR headsets. As a high schooler living in ‘the stacks’—trailers grafted together into large and dangerous towers—Wade’s only respite is a rusted out old van hidden away in a junkyard where he accesses the OASIS. After the death of eccentric OASIS’ architect James Halliday, a billionaire genius who in Willy Wonka-fashion offers up the rights to the OASIS and all of his money for anyone who can win the grand Easter egg hunt he’s left behind, Wade sets out to solve the cryptic game left behind by Halliday. The catch: before his death, Halliday was obsessed with ’80s pop culture, so Wade must immerse himself in everything from books, music, TV, and film from the era to truly understand the mind of the man who built the most important VR program in the world.
Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Cline and Zak Penn, the Ready Player One film is charging up an all-star cast, including Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, and T. J. Miller.
According to a report byThe Hollywood Reporter, Spielberg said the film is “the most amazing flash-forward and flashback at the same time about a decade I was very involved in, the ’80s, and a flash-forward to a future that is awaiting all of us, whether we like it or not.”
Ready Player One is slated to hit theaters on March 30, 2018.
Warner Bros and HTC have teamed up to create several virtual reality experiences based around the Ready Player One movie. They will release before and after the film, helping to expand its universe in the virtual medium.
As far as recommended reading for VR goes, Ready Player One ranks highly. Ernest Cline’s dystopian novel, set in a world ruled by the technology, has been given out at VR conferences and sourced as an inspiration countless times within the industry. Facebook’s Oculus even once gave all new employees a copy of the book. Next year, though, Ready Player One will be virtualized itself.
HTC today announced that it has exclusively partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures to create and distribute VR content based on the sci-fi hit. According to a press release, this will consist of both “experiences and games”. This content will be connected to the upcoming film adaptation of the novel, directed by Steven Spielberg and set for release just over a year from now on March 30th 2018. It’s a project we’ve been watching with a close eye.
HTC CEO Cher Wang and Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara celebrating the deal.
The content will be released through HTC’s Viveport service, meaning it will support the company’s own HTC Vive headset as well as all other “VR in-home platforms”, which very likely means the Oculus Rift, OSVR and, by the time of release, even LG’s recently revealed SteamVR headset. There will also be mobile VR content and experiences developed for HTC’s Viveport Arcade, which licenses VR games to arcades around the world. HTC will demo the content at events across the globe, but no word on when or where we’ll see it first.
And that’s pretty much all we know for now. We’ve reached out to HTC to ask who might be developing this content; we’ve seen the company work with real developers to bring movie-based games like John Wick to the Vive before. Given that the book is held in such high regard these apps will surely become some of the most anticipated on the horizon for the VR industry.
In preparation for Steven Spielberg’s theatrical adaptation of Ernest Cline’s critically acclaimed novel Ready Player One, HTC Vive and Warner Bros Pictures today announced a deal that makes the Vive an official partner for all upcoming VR content for the film. All Ready Player One VR content and experiences will be available on Viveport, HTC Vive’s digital distribution platform.
According to HTC, the company will produce multiple pieces of VR content tied to the world of Ready Player One,distributing it globally across all VR in-home platforms including high-end PC based VR systems to mobile solutions.
The company also plans to bring Ready Player One-inspired content to its Viveport Arcade platform for location-based entertainment as well as showcase the VR experiences and games at many of the biggest global consumer events through the year.
Based in a universe where highly-immersive VR is ubiquitous, things are sure to get pretty meta with Ready Player One VR content.
“Ready Player One is one of the most anticipated movies in the world, and has tremendous potential to engage and entertain the worldwide market, showcasing the transformative nature of VR, and what it can and will be,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport. “Vive is delivering on the promise of VR and continues to be the most advanced and immersive VR experience available to consumers, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Warner Bros. to bring these experiences to consumers, on all platforms, around the globe.”
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Ready Player One is starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn and T.J. Miller, with Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance. Zak Penn and Ernest Cline wrote the screenplay, based on the novel by Cline.
The film is slated for global theatrical release on March 30, 2018, from Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Partners and Village Roadshow Pictures.
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.
