VR Company Within and FoxNext Announce Content Partnership
19 Jan, 2017 By: Stephanie PrangeWithin, a leading VR company with a mission to tell stories in virtual reality, and FoxNext, a newly created division working across the film and television businesses of 21st Century Fox, have announced a content partnership to bring viewers a new slate of virtual reality experiences this year.
21st Century Fox is an investor in Within.
The first VR project is an immersive experience centered on 20th Century Fox’s science fiction franchise “Planet of the Apes.” The VR project is directed and produced by Within Founder and CEO Chris Milk and will utilize artificial intelligence to deliver a shared social experience that will be available on the Within app and across virtual and augmented reality platforms.
“Virtual reality is the next generation of entertainment and ‘Planet of the Apes’ provides the perfect canvas to create a new kind of filmmaking experience that will further immerse fans into the franchise,” said Salil Mehta, president of FoxNext. “In partnership with visionary filmmakers like Chris, and companies like Within, Fox will continue to push the envelope to create immersive experiences that bring audiences into the action like never before.”
Within and FoxNext are also working with Annapurna Pictures on an original VR film with the working title I Remember You. As part of the deal, Milk will produce and direct the film, which was developed alongside award-winning director Spike Jonze. Annapurna Pictures founder Megan Ellison will co-produce the film with Jonze and Milk. The project will also be available through Within.
"VR provides a unique opportunity to expose and explore the boundaries of technology and personal expression,” Milk said. “We’re confident that the opportunities of bringing narrative, plot-driven VR experiences to the mainstream outweigh the challenges. These two projects couldn’t be any more different in how we're building them, or the end result. That’s what’s exciting about this new medium though, there is no one right answer.”
The FoxNext and Within VR Experience for “Planet of the Apes” is independent of the previously announced collaboration between Fox and Imaginati Studios, Fox announced.