In case you’re somehow not aware of it, Christopher Nolan has a new movie hitting theatres in November called Interstellar.
It’s been lazily dubbed his 2001: A Space Odyssey, mainly due to its ambitious scope. As the clips and trailers have shown, however, the intergalactic drama with environmental themes will likely be something altogether different.
Nolan has been filming parts of his recent productions in IMAX since the release of The Dark Knight in 2008. Filmmakers as diverse as Michael Bay and Luc Besson have used the IMAX camera to bring audiences an immersive and suitably epic blockbuster experience.
Interstellar’s producers decided to take that one step further by allowing cinemagoers in four US cities to experience a sneak preview of the film using the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
Previews started on 6 October and now you can watch the first video of the lucky people who got to witness it in New York.
As part of the Interstellar experience, audience members got a guided tour through individual scenes in the film via the Oculus Rift headset. Visitors to the selected IMAX theatres also got to visit the film’s Endurance spacecraft and got an experience “similar to a zero gravity simulator” according to the film’s website.
If you weren’t lucky enough to catch the Interstellar Oculus Rift preview, worry not as there are plenty of other ways you can currently interact with the film before it hits your local cinema. The film’s marketing push is currently in full swing and includes an educational astrology website created by Google and an official Android game.
On the flip-side, director Christopher Nolan is currently urging cinemas to also broadcast the film in traditional 70mm or 35mm prints. Cinema chains that agree to do so will be able to show the film two days early.
