"What We’re Doing Is Not a Scorsese Restoration": Behind the Curtain of the AI-Enhanced 'Oz'

Hold on to your slippers, Dorothy. You're not in Kansas anymore.

Now you're in Las Vegas, on a 160,000-square-foot wall of LED panels in 16K. The original filmmakers in 1939 likely would have never dreamed of screening in such a setting.

It's being called "one of the most significant partnerships between a studio and technology company to use artificial intelligence (AI) to forge a new media experience," per Business World.

The AI-enhanced reimagining of the classic film was created for an immersive experience at the Las Vegas Sphere, and it opens this week. Guests (who will pay $100+ per ticket) will feel the wrath of the film's tornado in the form of fans and vibrating seats. Flying monkeys might also be involved.

This project, a collaboration between Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Warner Bros., and other partners, utilizes generative AI technologies such as Imagen, Veo, and Gemini to transform original film footage into ultra-high-definition images for the Sphere. CEO David Zaslav gave the production his blessing, too.

According to Google, key features of this AI adaptation include super-resolution enhancement of the original film frames, AI outpainting to expand scenes beyond their original 4:3 aspect ratio, and performance generation to fill in previously unseen parts of scenes. The AI was trained on archival materials such as the original film, scripts, production illustrations, and photographs.

"When the request came to us, I was almost jumping up and down," said Dr. Irfan Essa from Google DeepMind. "This is the best opportunity to showcase the magic that we develop using AI."

Obviously, there's a lot of pressure here to get a beloved film right.

"We had to reimagine the cinematography, we had to reimagine the editing, and we had to do all of this without changing the experience," Ben Grossmann, who oversaw the visual effects, told Reuters (via Business World). "Because if you touch anything about this sacred piece of cinema, you're toast!"

Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder and film producer, told Deadline, "What we're doing is not a Scorsese restoration. What we're doing, along with our partners at Warner Bros. and Google, is an experiential version."

CBS Sunday Morning recently aired a segment on the AI-augmented Oz. You can watch it below.

- YouTube youtu.be

The reactions were... not great.

You can peruse the comments under that YouTube video for easy evidence.

When Ben Mankiewicz (who is in the segment) tweeted about it, Film Twitter was understandably upset. He went on to post that AI was here to stay, and "we must accept" it.

Rosenthal told Deadline the criticism is just "the blind leading the blind" because no one has seen the upscaled Oz yet.

But for some, like many disappointed fans on Reddit, the end result doesn't matter. What matters is that a classic film has been changed in ways the original creative team could have never conceptualized.

Let us know your thoughts.