Virtual desktop app Bigscreen continues to find new ways to push its social VR platform to new limits.
This week, it was revealed that there’s a collaboration in the works with Paramount Pictures to screen Tom Cruise classic, Top Gun, in 3D on a virtual movie screen in promotion of the impending Blu-Ray release. Deadline reported Bigscreen users will be able to visit the app’s virtual cinema — which will be themed to look like the opening day of a brand new film — in December.
We confirmed with Bigscreen that Paramount isn’t the only studio in talks with the company to launch VR movie screenings.
Projecting traditional video onto virtual screens isn’t anything new, but Bigscreen is going for the full experience here. This will be a full social event in which virtual moviegoers can talk before the film starts and trailers will precede the screening. Screenings might start at regular intervals and you can just pull on an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Windows-based VR headset, load up the app, and you’ll be good to go.
As an experiment, this could be an important landmark for the VR industry; major film studios testing out a new way of promoting its films could have big implications for one of the many directions VR is headed. Special event screenings may no longer be confined to specific cinemas at spots around the world but instead globe-spanning experiences that anyone anywhere can join in with. Heck, you may not even have to leave your house to see the latest releases on, well, a big screen in the near future. That’s an exciting thought.
Last week, we also reported that the Bigscreen team had also figured out how to get Nintendo’s Switch console running in its virtual environments.
Correction: The original date for this event to start as reported by Deadline was incorrect, according to Bigscreen. The article has been updated to reflect additional information from Bigscreen.
