After our Halloween plans for this year got trashed over the weekend, I have one crucial question for you: Who wants to pay for my wife and me to visit The Sphere in Las Vegas for a Wizard of Oz Halloween party? Anyone? Bueller? Alright, I get it. Money is tight. In celebration of Halloween, all ticketed guests are invited to dress in costume for three upcoming showings of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere. For the 10 pm show on October 30 and both shows on Halloween, guests of all ages can walk the Yellow Brick Carpet and enjoy special treats (no tricks)!
“The Wizard of Oz at Sphere transports audiences into the Land of Oz alongside Dorothy and her friends,” said Bill Walshe, Executive Vice President, Global Head of Venue Operations & Development, Sphere. “This Halloween, the magic extends to the audience itself – where we invite fans of all ages to join us at Sphere and showcase their best costumes.”
Per today’s official press release for The Wizrad of Oz at The Sphere in Las Vegas:
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere is a fully immersive experience with multiple daily showtimes. Tickets start at $104 and are on sale now at thesphere.com. For groups of nine or more, please contact 725-258-7775 or [email protected]. For suites, please contact 725-258-6743 or [email protected].
Costumes worn to The Wizard of Oz at Sphere must comply with all Sphere venue policies, including no costume masks.
Watching The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere sounds like a wicked way to celebrate Halloween! I can’t wait to see images of everyone in costume, whether they’re dressed as Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch, Toto, or one of those scary talking trees.
If you thought The Wizard of Oz in IMAX 3D was a questionable way to present the 1939 classic as it was in 2013, consider how much AI is being used to showcase it in the Sphere. For starters, yes, the overall intent is to fully immerse viewers in the merry old land of Oz, with Sphere president Jennifer Koester stating, “Imagine what it would be like to be in a tornado in the Sphere where you’ve got wind coming at you, you’ve got scents coming at you, you’ve got leaves coming at you, your hair is flying all over… You’re not going to watch a movie, you are going to live a movie. You’re going to feel it, to see it, to touch it, to smell it.” (There is no word on whether real asbestos will be used to achieve maximum effect during the poppyfield sequence.)
These 4D-esque moments will no doubt dazzle many, but we must seriously question what has been done with the film itself. Remember, The Wizard of Oz was shot in 4:3 while the Sphere’s LED screen is a horse of a different color entirely, spanning 160,000 square feet. So how are the producers filling that massive screen? Yup, it’s AI. As Koester added, “We’ve gone and trained models alongside Google with archival footage about Wizard of Oz, footage from the Academy, the original film materials that represent the true life characters. And we’ve trained the models so that we can use AI to now give Dorothy legs in that image, because we know they were there, but we want them on the screen to fill the media plane.”
Would you attend a screening of The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere in Las Vegas as part of your Halloween plans? Let us know in the comments section below.
