{"id":180887,"date":"2025-08-27T22:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180887\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T22:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:53:10","slug":"ai-enabled-wizard-of-oz-clicks-its-heels-at-sphere-in-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180887\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-Enabled ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Clicks Its Heels At Sphere In Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor the AI<\/a> advocates behind a new version of The Wizard of Oz<\/a> at the Sphere<\/a> in Las Vegas, the 1939 musical offered a viable way to test of how technology could transform a classic.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which the Library of Congress says is the most-viewed in history, is considered to be part of the Hollywood firmament, a nearly 90-year ode to the enduring power of the medium. That helps explain why some critics and cinephiles already have been registering dismay about the update.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, it is also a film that most people have never seen on the big screen. A troubled production that was a misfire at the box office in its initial run, it found new life decades later when shown on television.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt felt like it was ripe for the Sphere,\u201d said producer Jane Rosenthal<\/a>, a member of the new Oz creative team. \u201cThere were five different directors on it. It came from the old studio system,\u201d rather than the auteur framework that came along later, she added. Moreover, it always had technology at heart, Rosenthal told Deadline in an interview. Producer Mervyn LeRoy and other stakeholders \u201cpushed for Technicolor, and it was one of the first time it was used in a film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf your frame of reference for these kinds of modernization efforts is the brightening of faded-out colors and a remastered soundtrack, however, think again. The Sphere is a completely different environment than a traditional movie theater, with a seating capacity of more than 18,000 and a curving, 160,000-square-foot wall of LED panels the length of three football fields and 22 stories high.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Global Box Office<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMore 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\u2019s house and deposits it next to the yellow-brick road. In this Oz, the flying monkeys actually take flight.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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 \u2013 and here comes the controversial part \u2013 AI models trained on archival source materials generated \u201cperformances\u201d 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\u2019s 167,000 speakers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is not a Scorsese restoration,\u201d Rosenthal said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing, along with our partners at Warner Bros<\/a> and Google, is an experiential version.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Wicked\u2019 Director Jon M. Chu Explains How \u2018Oz\u2019 Adaptations Reflect \u201cAmerica In Transition\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWith ticket prices starting north of $100, the Wizard of Oz run through the fall is not just another release in a slate, though it could be followed by other new takes on library titles. Carolyn Blackwood, the former longtime Warners exec who know runs Sphere Studios, said the company overseen by James Dolan \u2014 owner of New York\u2019s Knicks and Rangers, plus Madison Square Garden \u2014 is actively considering follow-ups.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNot every movie ever made would be appropriate\u201d given the sensory aspect of the Sphere, she said, but Oz \u201copens a door\u201d of possibilities. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about and exploring now. We\u2019re learning all the time, and that\u2019s what\u2019s been so exciting. It\u2019s an immersive medium, it\u2019s not a passive medium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBen Grossmann, an Oscar-winning visual effects artists recruited to spearhead the visuals, noted that one key aspect of the new version is that it\u2019s closer to a \u201clive show\u201d than a traditional film. Picture, he said, is never truly locked.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMovies are so old that you think of them as a serial process,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we think of this more like software, where we put it out and then we can do updates and make adjustments after we see what the audience wants and make adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Wicked\u2019 Concert Special Sets Airdate At NBC Ahead Of Sequel\u2019s November Release<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIn that sense, he added, it\u2019s \u201cmore of a living thing that you\u2019re creating instead of something you put out, ship and never think of again. The mindset that the tech-Hollywood team was on an \u201cR&D\u201d project \u201chelped us accomplish this,\u201d Grossmann added. \u201cWe had to stay agile and put technology in the hands of the artists and make creative decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarly images of the reworked Oz have gone over poorly with some denizens of the social realm once known as Film Twitter. After film historian and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz tweeted a clip of the tornado scene (gathered when he was working on a CBS Sunday Morning segment), the backlash was fierce. The anxiety and dread about AI potentially displacing many Hollywood workers found a new vehicle in the overhaul of a pop culture texts considered sacred. \u201cIf a living director wants to play in this new realm, I\u2019m all for it,\u201d filmmaker Patrick Read Johnson posted on X. \u201cIf it\u2019s just a rights holder looking to expand their profits without any consult by the artists who actually made the film. No.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRosenthal dismisses the raspberries as \u201cthe blind leading the blind\u201d given that no test screenings or previews have been held and there is no way to leak the site-specific experience. After all, the Vegas location remains the only existing Sphere, though Dolan hopes to expand if demand continues for the roster of concerts put on there by the likes of U2, the Eagles and Backstreet Boys.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Sphere Draws Rave Reviews As U2 Opens Unique Las Vegas Venue Residency<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGrossmann said he understands the frustration in some corners of the creative community given the sudden primacy of AI in general and the fear that an already cost-conscious entertainment industry will look to use it to cut jobs. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this project on a canvas of societal change that makes people uncomfortable,\u201d he acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yet, he argued, the new Wizard of Oz should not be considered to be a film project. It occupies a new space, and its proponents hope it can galvanize interest in theatrical moviegoing, even if by proxy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSphere is a reality that makes the screen disappear,\u201d Grossmann said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re producing here, you have to unlearn cinema and you have to relearn the human experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Watch The Trailer For Sphere-Shot U2 Concert Movie \u2018V-U2\u2032<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the AI advocates behind a new version of The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere in Las…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":180888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,738,102098,102099,83429,16994,158,48576,67,132,68,1021],"class_list":{"0":"post-180887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-google-deepmind","11":"tag-jane-rosenthal","12":"tag-sphere","13":"tag-techline","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-the-wizard-of-oz","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-warner-bros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115103190412176714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}