Barco Escape, Barco’s ultra-wide, multi-screen movie format on Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus device, will debut to the public September 19 with the release of director Wes Ball’s The Maze Runner from 20th Century Fox. Barco Escape uses multiple projectors and screens to create a panoramic viewing experience.
The Escape content running on the Samsung Gear VR simulates what moviegoers will experience when they go to the cinema to see a feature in Barco Escape format. It allows the user to look around during certain scenes of the movie and see what it feels like to view not just what’s on the main screen, but peripheral visual content on the side screens that further immerse the user into the movie.
Barco worked with 20th Century Fox and Ball to re-envision his short movie Ruin, which is currently in development with the studio to become a feature film, into Escape format as one of the featured content pieces for the Samsung Gear VR release. While Barco Escape is still in its early stages of deployment, the technology company saw the strong connection points between the all around you visual wonderland it is creating in theaters and the Virtual Reality experience Oculus offers.
On September 19th, in addition to the wide domestic and international release of The Maze Runner in large format and traditional theaters, fans in select theatres can watch the special Escape version in the following locations: Los Angeles, California; Davie, Florida; Plano, Texas; Woodridge, Illinois; and Redwood City, California; and Belgium.
The Maze Runner will also be released in Auro 11.1 immersive sound by Barco, the latest in this year’s series of top productions to offer 3D immersive sound to its audiences.
“We are breaking new ground by combining the latest Barco Digital Cinema projection technology and advanced visual storytelling. Every day, we learn something new as we experiment with this new format,” said Ted Schilowitz, CinemaVangelist for Barco and 20th Century Fox’s resident Futurist. “It’s a tremendous amount of fun to collaborate with such forward thinking teams to make this first movie in the Escape format possible.”
“The Samsung Gear VR is a powerful tool to introduce Barco Escape to the world,” Schilowitz said. “Barco Escape is all about the future of the cinema experience, so what better way to show what we are working on as we roll out this immersive movie going experience for worldwide audiences than to introduce it along with Oculus and Samsung on their latest Samsung Gear VR headset. We are thrilled Oculus and Samsung asked us to be a key part of the launch content on the Samsung Gear VR.”
For those fans outside of the cities currently equipped with Barco Escape theaters, the Samsung Gear VR allows them to get a glimpse of this new movie going experience through Virtual Reality.