Category: Within

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Within and Fox Partner to Create VR Content, Spike Jonze to Co-Produce Original VR Film

Content distribution platform and VR studio Within is partnering up with FoxNext, a recently created immersive media division of 21st Century Fox. The new partnership is promising to “bring viewers a new slate of virtual reality experiences this year,” the first of which will be based on Fox’s Planet of the Apes franchise.

The first VR project, based on the dystopian sci-fi film, will be directed and produced by Within Founder and CEO Chris Milk. The creators say the project will utilize artificial intelligence to deliver a shared social experience that will be available on the Within app and across both VR and AR platforms.

rise of the planet of the apes
Image courtesy 21st Century Fox

Annapurna Pictures will also be partnering with Within and FoxNext to create an original VR film called I Remember You (working title). Milk is set to produce and direct the film, and develop alongside award-winning director Spike Jonze and Annapurna Pictures Founder Megan Ellison. The film will be available through Within, an app that is available on SteamVR for PC VR headsets and Oculus Home for Gear VR.

Annapurna’s VR titles have included Evolution of Verse, The Click Effect, and two upcoming projects Life of Us and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Protectors for National Geographic, both of which are currently at Sundance and will see a general release on the Within app in 2017.

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Within announced a $12.4m series A funding round last June, taking on a number of investors from established media including 21st Century Fox, Annapurna Pictures, Legendary Pictures, and Vice Media.

“Virtual reality is the next generation of entertainment and PLANET OF THE APES provides the perfect canvas to create a new kind of filmmaking experience that will further immerse fans into the franchise,” said Salil Mehta, President, FoxNext. “In partnership with visionary filmmakers like Chris, and companies like Within, Fox will continue to push the envelope to create immersive experiences that bring audiences into the action like never before.”

The post Within and Fox Partner to Create VR Content, Spike Jonze to Co-Produce Original VR Film appeared first on Road to VR.

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‘The Possible’: First Episode of Virtual Reality Series is Available Now

‘The Possible’: First Episode of Virtual Reality Series is Available Now

Earlier this week, one of the world’s very first virtual reality series was released. The Possible is the name of a five-part immersive documentary directed by David Geld and featuring robots from the prestigious engineering company, Boston Dynamics. The series is intended to give people intimate peeks inside areas that they otherwise would never be able to access.

The first episode, Hello Robot, brings viewers up close and personal with the advanced robotics of Boston Dynamics. According to the episode’s official synopsis: “Go face-to-face with the world’s most advanced robots and get a rare look inside Boston Dynamics’ top secret lab, never before open to the public.”

The Possible is being made available on Within — a content curation app for VR videos. Within was formerly known as Vrse and is the creation of notable immersive filmmaker Chris Milk. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, Milk said of The Possible:

“Everything feels very one-off in virtual reality,” Milk said in an interview. “We want to give people a reason not just to watch something cool but watch something cool and then come back. It’s a simple concept that we are very used to in television but not one that we have really fully explored in virtual reality.”

Geld is the acclaimed director of popular documentaries such as Netflix’s The Chef’s Table or the critical darling Jiro Dreams of Sushi. He has a talent for finding the visual beauty in commonplace areas like food, and so it will be interesting to see what he’s capable of with more objectively frenetic material.

The robots featured in The Impossible’s first episode are revolutionary and seeing them in full 360 inside one of the many Within compatible VR headsets is truly engaging spectacle.

Within and The Impossible are available now for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR and PlayStation VR.

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