Wevr is thrilled to have played a leading role in the creation of the brand new VR experience for the Lionsgate movie, Allegiant. The film is the highly anticipated third installment of the immensely popular Divergent science fiction book and film series. We think the resulting experience offers a significant step forward in the VR medium. More than ever before, an audience has the opportunity to entirely immerse themselves in a fictional world previously only seen on a screen.

As Wevr’s CEO and coFounder Neville Spiteri explains, “ This experience benefited greatly from the collaboration between Lionsgate and Wevr. It allowed us to create a near seamless transition between the world in the Allegiant film and what is experienced here. ” Lionsgate not only shared visual assets from the film but arranged for the full participation of the movie’s three stars. As a result fans are effectively transported into the futuristic and dystopian world of the Divergent series alongside characters Tris, Four and Caleb – each portrayed both physically and dramatically by actors Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Ansel Elgort. The use of three realistic and highly interactive celebrity characters in VR is a an undeniable achievement in itself. But it’s what the characters do that sets this experience apart. It allows the audience to actually participate in a scene from the film. Situated within the Allegiant world, the actors interact and talk to one another, and most importantly, interact with the viewer directly.

To create the project Wevr enlisted our friends at Big Red Button Entertainment, led by cofounder and art director Bob Rafei, who we previously collaborated with on the John Wick Experience. Wevr also signed up the award winning game designer and creative director Randy Smith as a VR creator on Wevr’s Transport network. Randy, a veteran game and media theorist shares, “Whether the audience is brand new to the Allegiant series or to VR, whether they are video gamers or are fellow VR developers, I think they will walk away from this feeling a direct involvement with human characters like they haven’t seen before in a VR experience. Virtual reality is an entirely new Medium with a capital M. It has a unique ability to transform your entire sensory stimulus and create this other holodeck like reality. They’re gonna walk away thinking, ‘I was there’”

The Allegiant VR experience represents another brave step in the exploration of the new medium of cinematic VR.