- 1939 Classic the Wizard of OZ comes to the Las Vegas sphere
- Using the power of AI Genimagine Google the film to the 16k spherical screen
- The guide to OZ on the ball will open on August 28
The guide to OZ Coming to the Las Vegas sphere and it’s all thanks to Google’s incredible AI technology.
After last week’s announcement that the classic The Wizard of OZ from 1939 will be reintroduced to Las Vegas’ iconic 16K LED screen spherical theater to be opened on August 28, Google is now giving us a behind the scenes looking at the magic behind production.
While The guide to OZ Was not the first movie that was recorded in color, it is often called as one of the first true cinematic experiences to capture color effectively thanks to its incredible blend of colors and the use of black and white in the Kansas scenes of the film.
In Google’s blog post, the company says, “Likewise,” The Wizard of Oz “may not be the first movie that has been resumed with AI, but it may soon be known for that.”
This is a massive project that combines the teams of Google Deepmind, Google Cloud, Sphere Studios, Magnopus and Warner Bros. Discovery to create an incredible experience that comes out of wicked’s success that has been set in the same world as The guide to OZ.
With the launch of Wicked: Too good Seen by November 2025, it’s the perfect time to put your eyes on the film that inspired Elphaba and Glinda’s epic two -part musical.
The power of tech and AI will showcase The guide to OZ In “The Venue’s Spherical Room on 17,600-Seds to create an immersive sensory experience”, and Google says “Generative AI will take the center with Dorothy, Toto and more Munchkins than ever could fit into a multiplex.”
How to make a classic for a modern epic
Google’s blog post about the work that has gone into bringing The guide to OZ To the sphere is nothing short of insane.
The man behind the project, Buzz Hays, is the global lead for the entertainment industry’s solutions to Google Cloud and a veteran manufacturer in the Hollywood world.
He said, “We start with the original four-by-three image on a 35mm piece of celluloid-it is actually three separate, grainy films negatives; that’s how they shot Technicolor,” Hays says. “Of course, it doesn’t work on a screen that is 160,000 square meters. So we work with Sphere Studios, Magnopus and Visual Effects artists around the world along with our AI models to effectively bring the original characters and environments to a whole new canvas -creating an immersive entertainment experience that still respects the original in all ways.”
The bullet has the highest resolution screen in the world which means The guide to OZ‘s grained image material from 1939 would have caused a huge problem for the experience. Fortunately, the teams found solutions that used VEO, Imagen and Gemini to completely transform the film using an “AI-Based ‘Super Resolution Tool to transform the small celluloid frames from 1939 to Ultra-Ultra-High definition images that will pop inside the sphere.”
After upscaling, the teams then perform a process called AI -Excluding, which essentially extends the scenes in the Guide to OZ to fit the larger space found on the massive screen. AI then generates elements of the performances to fill the created space and make the shots look and feel trouble -free.
To keep the soul of the original
Although I do not accuse you if you think this sounds like an AI-generated disaster that is destroying a classic that should not be messed up, Google emphasizes how the team has the traditions of cinema at the head of any decision.
“In addition to old recordings, the team shed archives to build a huge collection of supplementary material, such as recording script, production illustrations, photographs, set plans and scores.”
Then these materials were uploaded to VEO and Gemini to train the models and build on the “specific details of the original characters, their environments and even elements of the production, such as the camera’s focal length of specific scenes.”
“With far more source material than just the 102-minute movie to work with, the quality of the outputs was dramatically improved. Now Dorothy’s freckles are clicking in focus and Toto can spoil more trouble-free through several scenes.”
