The Wizard of Oz at Sphere
Abstract
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere is a radically reimagined presentation of the 1939 MGM classic, redesigned specifically for Sphere Las Vegas’s 16K, 160,000-square-foot wraparound LED canvas and its 4D environment.
Built through a multi-year collaboration between Sphere Studios, Google (DeepMind & Cloud), Magnopus, Warner Bros. Discovery and hundreds of artists,
the project blends AI-driven image enhancement and outpainting with live theatrical 4D effects (wind, haptics, fog, pyrotechnics) to create a hybrid experience somewhere between a restored film screening and a theme-park attraction.
This article documents the project’s technical methods, creative decisions, audience experience, ticketing/VIP structures, critical reception, legal/ethical debates about AI reworking, and the project’s potential implications for cinema and live entertainment.
1. Project overview and context
Sphere’s adaptation opened in Las Vegas with a world premiere on August 28, 2025, and is presented as an open-ended run with multiple daily showings. The production is explicitly framed as part restoration, part expansion: no new spoken lines or songs were added, yet generative AI and VFX were used to expand the original 4:3 frames into a continuous 360° canvas, fill in off-camera action, and up-res the century-old film to the venue’s enormous display. Sphere promoted large-scale public activations tied to the event (notably the Wicked Witch of the East legs and ruby slippers outside the venue).
2. Partners, resources and scale of effort
The endeavor is a major industrial collaboration. Sphere Studios led creative production with critical technical contributions from Google Cloud and Google DeepMind, Magnopus (VFX/immersive specialists), and Warner Bros. Discovery (rights holder and creative partner). Reported staffing numbers range in the thousands across artists, AI researchers, archivists, and engineers; budgets were widely reported in the tens of millions (approaching the nine-figure range) given the scope of bespoke VFX, audio re-recording, engineering of in-theater effects, and venue activations. The project required dense compute for AI model fine-tuning and frame-level processing, including use of Google’s specialized models and data-center TPUs.
3. Technical approach — AI, restoration and expansion
Three core AI-backed techniques defined the Wizard of Oz engineering pipeline:
- Super-resolution (upscaling): The original 35mm negatives and 4:3 film frames were processed with fine-tuned models to produce ultra-high-definition imagery suitable for 16K projection on a 160,000 sq. ft. curved LED plane.
- Outpainting / scene expansion: Using model fine-tuning on archival production materials (scripts, set photos, concept art), the team extended cropped or framed compositions to fill the Sphere’s wraparound aspect ratio — adding ceilings, side scenery, sky and environmental detail that were never in the original frames.
- Performance-aware compositing / “performance generation”: In scenes where camera cuts excluded characters or only partially showed them, models were tuned to recreate plausible limb/face/body extensions or crowd-fill elements so that large panoramic views felt continuous.
Google publicly described using variants of Imagen, Veo, and Geminitechniques in concert with archival materials to keep outputs faithful to the original look while enabling the 360° format. The producers emphasized that the process relied on abundant archival context to guide the models and reduce arbitrary hallucination.
4. Audio, haptics and in-theater 4D systems
Sphere re-recorded orchestral accompaniment on the original scoring stage, then spatialized audio across its 167,000 programmable speakers to produce a precisely directed immersive sound field that can deliver subtle localization and global impact (e.g., infrasound for low-register rumble). Haptic seats, fan arrays, pyrotechnic towers, fog/scent systems, and automated drone/prop elements (inflatable flying monkeys, falling foam apples) were integrated to synchronize physical sensations with the visual program. The result was engineered as a multi-sensory ride in which sound, motion and environmental cues augment the projected imagery.
5. Theatrical design and experience (what audiences see & feel)
Visitors move from an atrium pre-show — themed in sepia to evoke Kansas before shifting to technicolor — into the bowl where a continuous 16K projection wraps over and around them. The presentation runtime was shortened to roughly 75–80 minutes, re-edited to highlight immersive set pieces (notably an amplified tornado sequence) and to enable multiple daily showings. Key effect moments include:
- Tornado sequence: Massive fans, leaf/debris projection and seat motion simulate an indoor cyclone — widely cited as the show’s visceral centerpiece.
- Poppy field & snow: Scent, fog, and falling artificial “snow” during the Glinda sequence.
- Flying monkeys & pyro: 16-foot drone/prop winged monkeys and columns of fire synchronized with Wizard’s scenes.
- Audience ‘takeaways’: Foam apples with scent, souvenir posters for VIPs, and large exterior activations (giant witch legs and ruby slippers) that extend the experience to the public plaza.
6. Ticketing, VIP packages and commercial model
Sphere and partners marketed tiered experiences: standard tickets (reported starting around $104–$138 for some price bands), mid-tier “preferred” and premium seats, and themed VIP packages — the Good Witch (Glinda) premium experience ($299) and the Bad Witch (Wicked Witch Ultimate VIP) ($349) — which include expedited/early entry, premium seating (notably Section 306 “director’s seat” alignment), lounge access, and in-venue credit for concessions/merch. Exclusive hotel packages with The Venetian were sold to bundle lodging with tickets. Sphere also promoted a “Bad Witch” sweepstakes as a marketing activation. The production sold hundreds of thousands of advance tickets going into the opening period.
7. Critical reception and contentious issues
Reaction has been polarized. Many journalists and attendees praise tornado sequence, spectacle of immersive sound, and the visceral 4D moments that make the show thrilling and novel for family audiences. However, critics and some film purists raised concerns:
- Aesthetic unease: AI smoothing and up-res techniques produced a hyper-clean, sometimes “waxy” rendering of performers (notably Judy Garland) that critics argue reduces the grainy filmic texture and, in some shots, flattens emotional nuance.
- Uncanny valley effects: AI-generated crowd extensions and digitally “filled” characters occasionally appear stiff or soulless, producing dissonance in scenes meant to be intimate.
- Editorial compression: The runtime reduction and excision/shortening of certain sequences (some songs trimmed) prompted debate about whether the adaptation preserves or distorts the original’s narrative and pacing.
- Ethical questions: The use of generative AI to alter archival performances raises larger industry questions about consent, stewardship of cultural heritage, and how to responsibly balance restoration with reinterpretation.
Coverage emphasized both the technical audacity of the project and the thorny ethical-aesthetic debate it provokes — a flashpoint for how AI will be used in reworking canonical cultural works. (San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture)
8. Cultural, legal and industry implications
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere serves as a high-profile case study in multiple domains:
- Cultural stewardship: Studios and rights-holders must balance reverence for original works with opportunities to reintroduce them in new formats; transparency about methods and the involvement of estates/historians matters for public trust.
- AI policy and practice: The project highlights the need for standards around provenance, archival fidelity, model explainability, and whether modifications require special labeling or disclaimers.
- Business model innovation: Sphere demonstrates a venue-driven commercial model — where IP owners, tech firms, and venue operators collaborate to create long-running experiential residencies that monetize legacy content beyond traditional theatrical or streaming windows.
- Future reuse of catalog titles: If commercially successful and publicly accepted, this approach could be applied to other classic works, which raises questions about curation, artistic integrity, and audience expectations.
9. Conclusions and outlook
The Wizard of Oz at Sphere is both a technological milestone and a lightning rod. It presents what next-generation, venue-specific cinema can look like: a hybrid of film restoration, VFX expansion, and live theatrical spectacle, enabled by advanced AI, massive compute, and bespoke hardware. The project will likely accelerate industry debate about preservation versus reinterpretation, prompt tighter best practices for AI augmentation of archival media, and serve as a commercial blueprint for immersive residencies. Whether audiences come away feeling the production honors or undermines the original depends on individual thresholds for spectacle, attachment to the original filmic texture, and acceptance of AI as a restorative tool. Regardless, its ambition ensures it will be studied by technologists, curators, filmmakers and ethicists for years to come. (blog.google, San Francisco Chronicle)
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