VR pioneer: Elijah Wood is exploring the boundaries of virtual reality with his production company Spectrevision Glenn Copus
Elijah Wood, the Hollywood actor best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has a high horror threshold. He’s describing a new video game he’s worked on as “a little unsettling”. Less hardened players have said the virtual reality thriller Transference is scarier than that. At its E3 debut gamers were left swearing in shock and needed to decompress afterwards.
Speaking on the phone, Wood sounds relaxed but chooses his words carefully. The game, he explains thoughtfully, is about a man called Raymond Hayes, whose brain research lets you experience other people’s consciousness. In the demo, the Oculus Rift headset transports players into the glitching brain map of a post-traumatic stress disorder sufferer, exploring a creaky house where interactive objects unlock sometimes visceral traumatic memories.
It’s not what you expect from a former hobbit. But Wood, 36, has moved on — the American actor is now using his star power to back cult horror films and explore the genre’s untapped potential in virtual reality.
Fresh from cult film hits such as A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and The Greasy Strangler, Transference marks the first VR game from Wood’s production company Spectrevision .
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(Spectrevision/Ubisoft)
The game is the fruit of a collaboration with publisher Ubisoft, and self-proclaimed long-time gamer Wood is reluctant to divulge any of its dark secrets. Even the E3 taster demo experience was more an indication of the project’s general direction than the final gameplay.
“Part of why it works is how little information you have,” he teases. “There’s a sense of discovery. The experience unfolds itself as you navigate in the world that you’re in.
“VR feels like the wild west. The rules aren’t fully defined. There are so many people innovating still, which is what makes it so exciting. I think a lot of people are still trying to figure out the best way to use VR. Prior to really getting into it, I think we saw it as an extension of cinema. But it’s not cinema, the player is essentially controlling the shot, we can’t do that for you. Weaving narrative into the structure of VR is challenging and unique — you have to allow for a sense of discovery rather than pointing people in the right direction all the time.”
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Source: Evening Standard