Fox has embarked on its first virtual reality promotion for its latest film ‘Wild’ letting players experience the film with a Samsung Gear headset or similar device.
Fox Searchlight has crafted what it’s calling a companion VR piece with the help of Montreal-based VR artists and directors Paul Raphaël and Félix Lajeunesse, and it was demoed at CES in Las Vegas this week for select press.
Wild starring Reese Wtherspoon, is based on a novel about one woman’s journey of self-discovery while hiking the Pacific Trail.
The game features the player’s character sitting on a virtual tree stump in a forest, listening and observing as Witherspoon’s character walks up a trail, rests on a rock next to them and engages with the ghost of her mother.
David Greenbaum, executive produce, explains: “A lot of people, I think, think about VR in terms of science fiction and sort of big effects. And I think what’s very compelling about … VR is sometimes the simplest experiences are the most profound.”
The Wild experience is the first official title from the Fox Innovation Lab, a think tank and experimentation center for 20th Century Fox and its sister studios.
“We started [the lab] about a year ago, and the idea was that our relationship with consumer electronics manufacturers — just in general between Hollywood and CE — it just seemed we were out of sync,” says Mike Dunn, president of Fox Home Entertainment.
Virtual reality (VR) is now one of the most popular ways to market upcoming movies with the likes of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Interstellar and The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies all using the technology to create short experiences.
The experience is set to be on display at two events in January 2015. The first is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on 6th – 9th, the other being the Sundance Film Festival from 22nd January – 1st February in Park City, Utah.