‘The Wizard of Oz’ gets AI makeover for Las Vegas Sphere

The yellow brick road is winding its way to the Las Vegas sphere this summer, and after this, you may never see Dorothy's ruby slippers or her little dog Toto the same way again

That's because The Wizard of Oz is getting a 21st century makeover powered by artificial intelligence

The 1939 classic is being reimagined to fit the Sphere in Las Vegas, a 17,600-seat globe structure with the world's largest LED display, known for hosting legendary acts like the Eagles and fully immersive 4D experiences

This AI-enhanced American classic is a collaboration between Warner Brothers, the Sphere, and Google's AI teams with a debut set for August 28

While the story stays the same, Google's AI model Gemini has been working behind the scenes, improving the film's resolution, filling in visual gaps, and even generating new backgrounds and performances

It's also digitally recreating characters that originally wouldn't have appeared in the same frame

In fact, AI has touched more than 90% of the movie. Producer Jan Rosenthal says the team explored different options but quickly realized AI was the only tool that could bring the film to life on this scale

Google's AI team even works with professional filmmakers to decide character actions, expressions and performances

Stephen Hickson, director of AI Foundation Research at Google DeepMind, called the project very, very big and very, very difficult

There are scenes where the scarecrow's nose is like 10 pixels. That's a big technological challenge

challenge The original film was shot in the 1930s on a 35 millimeter camera with a 4x3 aspect ratio Great for its time but not for a 160 square foot wraparound screen At the Sphere that old school frame would leave giant black bars on both sides not exactly immersive Hickson says in one scene Dorothy talks to an M and Miss Gulch In the original version Uncle Henry is off camera but in the Sphere version thanks to AI he now in the frame along with a much wider view of the house

Sear Chief Executive Jim Dolan said at a preview there was no other company that could do this and that he had originally approached six companies about the project

But this AI-assisted approach isn't without controversy. Across Hollywood, AI has become a flashpoint with actors pushing for protections and studios facing backlash for its use in both new productions and remastered classics

Just recently, Oscar winner Adrian Brody stirred headlines after it was revealed AI had been used to tweak his Hungarian accent in The Brutalist

Reddit users pushed back on a remastered version of I Love Lucy after background characters meant to be out of focus were sharpened with AI

In Alien Romulus, AI was used to bring back the late actor Ian Holm, sparking online debate, while a 4K re-release of Jaws 3D faced criticism for giving characters what some called a waxy, unnatural look

But the sphere's Dolan isn't worried about pushback over the AI-enhanced Oz

His message to Hollywood, quote, I can't wait for the film and television industry to see what we've done

I think their jaws will drop. With Stray Arrow News, I'm Kennedy Felton

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