AI-Enhanced ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Las Vegas Sphere Raises Eyebrows

There is a new experience coming to the Sphere in Las Vegas: a novel version of The Wizard of Oz that has been upscaled, reimagined, and modified with AI technology for the unique theater.

The shows are set to start later this month on August 28, but previews online have been raising eyebrows — with some fans reacting in horror calling it a “Windows XP wallpaper.”

The screen inside the Las Vegas sphere is 160,000 square feet which means the producers of the show have to “outpaint” virtually every scene. For this, they turned to AI.

For instance, there is a scene in the original film where Uncle Henry walks into a room from off-frame. But in the Sphere version of the movie, attendees will see a digitally generated version of Uncle Henry standing just outside the door, listening in moments before he enters.

Jane Rosenthal, one of the producers, tells Variety that the crew turned to the original shot list used by the cameramen on the 1939 The Wizard of Oz as inspiration.

“We went through all the production designer drawings. We looked at all the props in the Warner Brothers archives and the Academy archives,” she says.

Much of the original film’s audio has been re-recorded or remastered to take full advantage of the Sphere’s staggering 167,000+ speaker system. There are also “4D” sensory elements for attendees — think haptic seat vibrations, immersive scents that fill the room, and dramatic environmental effects, including a lifelike simulated tornado.

However, some fans have complained that such changes to Oz world are unnecessary. The Sphere version of the film runs at 75 minutes while the original is roughly 101 minutes — highlighting the changes made to the film.

Reactor Mag notes that the experience of watching the new version of the movie from inside the Sphere will be very different from what it is like for people outside, calling it “more of a theme park attraction than a traditional film remaster.”

But if it is successful, then other films could also be given the AI, spherical treatment.

“It’s a template for our industry,” Rosenthal tells Variety. “It’s not the way that Marty Scorsese’s Film Society restores films, but it is a way for us to go back and look at films through the eyes of the director and the time in which they were made. We hope to do other films, but we don’t know what those are.”