Disney is Utilizing VR For Lion King Remake
So, did you enjoy The Lion King? You know, the story of young lion Simba brought to life by Elton John and James Earl Jones? Yeah, I thought so. It’s not only been a smash hit on screen but on Broadway and will soon be once again been seen in theatres as there’s a new feature version in the works. But this version is likely going to be much different than the original you may remember. Not only is it going to star Donald Glover and be directed by John Favreau, but this Lion King is also going to be one of the first major Hollywood movies to seriously explore the use of virtual reality within its production.
While this isn’t the first time the story of Simba has ventured into VR – the broadway version’s opening number was made available for VR users back in 2015 – this latest version of the Disney smash hit’s use of virtual reality is in fact behind the scenes and not meant for audience consumption.
A quote from a recent story in the Hollywood Reporter, talking with the visual effects supervisor, Rob Legato, said that they were using many VR tools in the production of the film. Making a live action remake of an animated film must be though but in this version the actors in the new Lion King can, by wearing VR headsets, step into a virtual stage and feel as though they are in the actual world of the movie; one that will ultimately be rebuilt using CGI.
Now for VR enthusiasts, this is, one hand, the kind of exciting news that points to the kinds of possibilities for the future of the medium. On the other hand, it’s also got to be kind of annoying. I mean, if there’s something this cool, something that shows real life use of VR, we want to see it!
Legato, a three-time Oscar winner who himself is a pioneer in the use of virtual production techniques, applying them to movies from Avatar to The Jungle Book, seems really excited by the prospects of virtual reality in the future of moviemaking, stating that because VR tools can heighten the ability of filmmakers to create anything, the democratization of high-level filmmaking will allow exciting new voices to emerge within Hollywood, it would still be nice to see exactly how these techniques work.
So while in the meantime, we’ll no doubt be blown away by the rebooted Lion King, it’s going to be what we get in the bonus features – hopefully behind the scenes footage – that will give us a better sense of the kinds of virtual reality experiences that are helping to shape the future of films.