More than merely enhancing the traditional movie theater presentation, the new Oz is looking to create a true spectacle. Imagine 750-horsepower wind machines kicking up debris and haptic signals vibrating the seats as the iconic twister lifts Dorothy’s house and deposits it next to the yellow-brick road. In this Oz, the flying monkeys actually take flight.
The elements contained in the traditional frame also had to get a complete rethink, lest audiences feel like they are looking through a mail slot at the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. That meant – and here comes the controversial part – AI models trained on archival source materials generated “performances” by various characters who did not make the original cut. The 16K resolution in the Sphere is higher than on any screen on Earth, meaning textures and faces needed to be rendered frame by frame for the space. The sound, too, was redone for the venue’s 167,000 speakers.
“What we’re doing is not a Scorsese restoration,” Rosenthal said. “What we’re doing, along with our partners at Warner Bros and Google, is an experiential version.”
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