AI-Enhanced 'Wizard of Oz' Debuts at Las Vegas Sphere, Sparking Awe and Controversy

AI-enhanced, immersive 'Wizard of Oz' debuts in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Swirling winds, drone-operated monkeys and artificial intelligence brought new life to "The Wizard of Oz" on Thursday at the premiere of an immersive version of the Hollywood classic in Las Vegas. A yellow-brick carpet, mimicking the yellow brick road in the film, led to the entrance of Sphere, a high-tech, dome-shaped entertainment venue that is showing the update of the 1939 movie musical. Premiere attendees included Lorna Luft, whose mother Judy Garland played Dorothy in the movie. "We are finally off to see the wizard!" Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan told the crowd. "What you're about to see tonight is our most powerful example yet of experiential storytelling in this new media." Some cinema lovers have recoiled at the idea of tinkering with a classic film. Workers in Hollywood also are wary that artificial intelligence will be used to replace human work. Item 1 of 3 A display of 50-feet-long legs and 22-feet-tall ruby slippers, a promotion for the upcoming "Wizard of Oz at Sphere" movie, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., August 20, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo [1/3]A display of 50-feet-long legs and 22-feet-tall ruby slippers, a promotion for the upcoming "Wizard of Oz at Sphere" movie, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., August 20, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Dolan said audiences would be wowed by the new "Wizard of Oz" experience. "For the first time, you're going to feel like you're part of the story," he said. Reworking the film took more than two years and 2,000 people, including the Sphere's creative team, Google's DeepMind researchers (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O), opens new tab executives. The film has been updated and AI has been used to make it watchable on Sphere's giant, wraparound screen. AI restored tiny celluloid frames into today's high definition and filled in details such as freckles on Dorothy's face. Proponents see it as a potential watershed moment in Hollywood's use of AI tools. The Sphere added off-screen elements such as fans that kicked up wind and blew leaf-shaped confetti when the tornado swept Dorothy's farmhouse into the sky. Sixteen-foot (4.88-metre) helium-filled monkeys flew overhead as the Wicked Witch plotted Dorothy's demise. Reporting by Lisa Richwine, Editing by Timothy Heritage Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

'The Wizard of Oz' Is Getting an A.I. Glow Up.

"You should all be ashamed." Those are some of the printable comments from a frenzied online conversation among cinephiles that started last month, when Ben Mankiewicz, the Turner Classic Movies host and "CBS News Sunday Morning" contributor, took an adulatory look at a coming Las Vegas attraction called "'The Wizard of Oz' at Sphere." The orb-shaped arena, in partnership with Google, used various A.I. tools to create a new version of the beloved 1939 musical. But what about the vacationing masses who make up the target audience for the show? Will they recoil in the same way? We will soon find out. The premiere will take place on Thursday evening, with the arena offering as many as three showings a day after that. Here is what you need to know. What is all the criticism about? It is easy to understand why movie purists -- and anyone worried about the rise of artificial intelligence -- would loathe the project, sight unseen. Artificially generated images were added to scenes to make the original movie big enough to fill the venue's massive screen, which wraps up, over and around the audience. Dorothy grew legs, for example, for a scene that was previously a close-up. The poppy field now goes on and on. Because of the camera's narrow aspect ratio in the original film, Uncle Henry was often off-camera, even when he was logically in the room; he's visible now. The Cowardly Lion was given similar treatment. The Sphere also cut nearly 30 minutes from the film, which was licensed for the project by Warner Bros. Cue the pitchforks and torches. Who is behind this project? The publicly traded Sphere Entertainment Company spent an estimated $80 million to modernize "The Wizard of Oz." "It could very well be that 'The Wizard of Oz' is doing so well that it nudges out one or two concerts," James L. Dolan, Sphere's chief executive, told analysts on an Aug. 11 conference call. Mr. Dolan, who also owns Madison Square Garden and the Knicks, added that he expected "'The Wizard of Oz' at Sphere" to have sold roughly 200,000 tickets by opening night. (The venue seats about 18,000 people.) Tickets start at $109 and go up to $349 for something called the Witch Ultimate V.I.P. Experience, which includes beer and merch. A TikTok promo for the project had generated 33,000 likes as of Thursday morning. Many of the 300 comments were positive. "I would give anything in the world to be able to go see this," one woman wrote. "This is what A.I. should be used for!!" a man said. "Booking my tickets ASAP," added another. What does it mean for Hollywood? "'The Wizard of Oz' at Sphere" is the first time people are going to see what A.I. can really do with a movie. Until now, studios have been reluctant to use the powerful technology, in part because of concerns about how the public might react. So it amounts to a test: How much generative A.I. will the moviegoing masses tolerate? Strong ticket sales could prove there is a market -- despite purist pushback -- and help persuade studios to use the technology to make new movies and enhance old ones. Are other classics getting this treatment? Mr. Dolan mused on the earnings call about giving "Gone With the Wind" a whirl. But he stopped short of making any announcements. "We are in active discussions with lots of I.P. holders who are interested," he said, referring to intellectual property. Generally speaking, studios have been desperate to find new ways to squeeze money from old films ever since the DVD boom went bust. What does the Sphere say about pushback from cinephiles? A publicist for "'The Wizard of Oz' at Sphere" declined to make anyone involved with the project available for an interview. In marketing materials, the Sphere has emphasized the care it has taken. "The key for us is to maintain the integrity of the original filmmakers' intent," Jane Rosenthal, a producer, said in a TikTok video posted on the Sphere account. In an Aug. 22 interview with Variety, a Hollywood trade magazine, Ms. Rosenthal sounded testy. "Anyone who is talking about this hasn't seen it, so you've got the blind talking to the blind." Did they use A.I. to alter Judy Garland's voice? The companies have said they did not. What else should I expect if I go? To make the experience more immersive, producers added numerous real-world effects. When the tornado arrives onscreen, for instance, high-horsepower fans blast the arena with leaf-shaped confetti. Monkeys will fly through the space at the appropriate time. (They're really helium-filled balloons steered by drone operators.) There are also pyrotechnical effects during the Wizard scenes in the Emerald City. Some seats vibrate. "Hold onto your dentures," Paul Freeman, a senior technician on the project, told Variety, speaking of the tornado effect. "It's gnarly in a big way."

'Wizard of Oz' at Sphere blows away celebrities, fans like a Kansas tornado in Vegas

LAS VEGAS - Lorna Luft brushed aside any doubts about how her legendary mother, Judy Garland, would have felt about "The Wizard of Oz" at the Sphere. The actress-singer Luft, 72, brought her two grown children and four grandchildren to the Aug. 28 "Wizard of Oz" premiere at Las Vegas' Sphere to witness the nearly $100 million reimagining of the 1939 classic starring Garland, then 16, as Dorothy. The iconic film now plays across the venue's 160,000-square-foot, 16K-resolution LED screen that wraps over and around the audience. "We're all here, the whole family," Luft told USA TODAY on the yellow carpet, adding her half-sister, Liza Minnelli -- from Garland's marriage to director Vincente Minnelli -- was "completely supportive" of the project which has drawn some criticism over the use of AI to enhance the effects. "My mother would have loved this, absolutely," said Luft. "I hope there's a standing ovation during 'Over the Rainbow.'" 'You're going to feel like you're inside 'The Wizard of Oz' Sphere CEO promises That reaction did not quite happen during the crystal clear, super-screen-sized recreation of Garland's iconic screen song. But the new version touched down like a Kansas tornado for the vocally appreciative audience that included an eclectic group of Hollywood and music stars including Kris Jenner, Joe Manganiello, Rosanna Arquette, Skylar Astin and Queen guitarist Brian May. "Wicked" star Marissa Bode, the only representative from the hit revisionist musical now filming its second installment, celebrated her 25th birthday at the Sphere premiere. "I was like, a trip to Vegas to watch the 'Wizard of Oz' like this -- I'm in," said Bode. Hundreds of attendees dressed as Dorothy and her Yellow Brick Road companions -- the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. James Dolan, CEO of Sphere Entertainment, appeared dressed as the Wizard to open the film. "I'm pretty sure this is a night you'll never forget," Dolan told the crowd. "We're off to see the Wizard. For the first time, you're going to feel like you're inside 'The Wizard of Oz.'" The audience began reacting with shocked and outspoken appreciation from the very first scene -- simply the credits splayed across the gargantuan screen. But the magnification of the iconic Kansas tornado is the real star, swirling papers around the auditorium seemingly from the screen. The skies darken and the winds from powerful fans transforms the scene into a true baton-down-the hatches unforgettable moment. After the movie, actress Tia Carrere was spotted holding her hand to her head in awe talking about making it through the simulated natural disaster. What's different in the Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz'? Enhanced with AI-generated visuals, the 77-minute Sphere version adds flourishes, including the Wicked Witch of the West broom-writing "Surrender Dorothy -- Or Die" (the "Or Die" was cut from the original film). Some original elements were trimmed from the shortened Sphere movie, including the Cowardly Lion's entire second song, "If I Were King of the Forest." But ruby-red-slipper-wearing Ryan Jay, a self-described Oz historian from Milwaukee, didn't dwell over the lost song. Jay said he was blown away after attending with three other fellow historians who were critically examining the Sphere version of their cherished film. "This is our Super Bowl," said Jay, who already shelled out for a return ticket despite prices starting at a not-in-Kansas-anymore price of $104. "I'm coming back tomorrow."

Best 'Wizard of Oz' moments that prove there's no place like Sphere Las Vegas

Movie purists may grumble, but what the Sphere team has done with "The Wizard of Oz" is nothing short of extraordinary. More than 2,000 filmmakers, technicians, audio experts and AI creatives spent two years reilluminating Dorothy Gale's adventure into a gleaming spectacle that will move you - literally and emotionally. The film, recalibrated for its close-up on the 160,000 square feet of 16K screen inside Las Vegas' orb of wonder, opens Aug. 28 for an open-ended run. While some may balk at the $104 ticket price, what is being presented isn't merely a large-screen version of the classic 1939 film, but an experience - and one that has already moved more than 120,000 tickets for showings scheduled (so far) through March. While that might seem like a trite explanation, there is no succinct way to describe the transformative encounter that begins upon entry into the venue's atrium, which welcomes viewers into the Land of Oz with Sphere-typical grandiosity. Much has been speculated about the "ethical AI" used by the "Wizard" crew that includes Oscar-nominated producer Jane Rosenthal to enhance the film. Despite the online uproar, we suggest protestations be shelved until the film is experienced in person. The stunning moments in this 75-minute version of "Oz" are numerous, but here are three that will drop your jaw. A tornado to make you cower The soul of "The Wizard of Oz" is the relationship between Dorothy and her ragtag compatriots, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man (and of course her beloved Toto). But there would be no yellow brick road to skip down to find that "whiz of a wiz" without the knockout tornado that triggers Dorothy's journey to Munchkinland. We have one word for that legendary weather event: intense. Don't be embarrassed when you realize you're ducking because of images on a screen. The 750-horsepower fans, one of many 4D immersive elements in the film, create the feeling of chaos as farm equipment, debris and yes, that poor cow, fly across the screen. It's so realistic you'll worry that a tractor - or perhaps that spinning house - will land on your head. And when it's over and your heart resumes a normal pace, the transition from sepia-toned Kansas to Technicolor that stuns with its clarity will take your breath away again. The music glistens like a rainbow As producer Rosenthal noted during an interview with USA TODAY in July, "Oz" enthusiasts have heard the movie in mono and in some televised versions, stereo. But, she said, "hearing that voice the way you've never heard it before is show-stopping." That voice is Judy Garland's, an instrument naturally imbued with grace and crystalline tone, and when she utters the opening line of "Over the Rainbow," you'll stop counting her incredibly detailed eyelashes and swallow hard because that lump will already be in your throat. The score for the film was rerecorded with a live orchestra on the original soundstage at the former MGM lot in Los Angeles (now called the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage), with even some of the same instruments being used decades later. While "Over the Rainbow" is the heart-piercer of the musical, the vibrant chants of the greeters in Munchkinland ("Ding Dong the Witch is Dead") and the giddy anthem of optimism spouted by the fearless foursome ("We're Off to See the Wizard") also shimmer. Sphere brass might want to consider adding singalong showings of the film to the calendar. The Wizard is grand, if only in appearance While the Wizard is famously a small man feeding his insecurities by barking from behind a curtain, his façade is mesmerizing. The Emerald City, where Dorothy and Co. trek to visit the all-powerful wizard, is vast, striking and very, very green. So entrancing is that vision that you might not notice the booming talking head off to the side of the screen until plumes of flames signal The Wizard's power kick. As the titular character, the Wizard has always intrigued as an Emperor Has No Clothes figure, but on a screen the size of two city blocks, his pretense is amplified to almost comedic effect, making his actuality feel even less significant.

How New Sphere Show Alters 'The Wizard of Oz' -- and Aims to Bring the Classic to Life

Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion walked down the yellow brick road to Oz 86 years ago. Now, "The Wizard of Oz" fans can feel like they're joining them. The Sphere in Las Vegas is bringing the film to life, with a reimagined version of the 1939 classic based on L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." During the experience, which opened Aug. 28, "The Wizard of Oz" is projected onto the Sphere's 160,000 square-foot display, immersing the audience in nearly 360-degree visuals and sound. Here's what to know about the show. "The Wizard of Oz" fans will feel like they're stepping into the eye of a Kansas tornado when watching the movie at the Sphere. Due to the wraparound visuals, the Sphere says the audience will feel "blown away" during the scene in which Dorothy is transported from Kansas to Oz via cyclone. NBC News' Gadi Schwartz attended the experience reporting for TODAY and witnessed debris flying around the theater to bring to life the "monstrous tornado" from the film. The audience is also engrossed in multi-sensory 4D elements during the film, including "high-velocity wind arrays, atmospheric fog, towering fire bursts, bubbles, and infrasound haptic seats," according to the Sphere's website. During one scene, in which Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion are being swarmed by flying winged monkeys, the audience appears to experience digitized versions of the creatures flying overhead. The Sphere even took the experience outside the physical venue -- and up to the Las Vegas sky. Mimicking the Wicked Witch of the West writing a message to Dorothy using smoke in the sky, the Sphere shared an image of the line "SURRENDER DOROTHY...OR DIE" penned in puffs over the venue. The Sphere experience also made some notable changes to play the film on its wraparound screen. First, the runtime. While "The Wizard of Oz" typically clocks in at around 102 minutes, the runtime for the Sphere show is 75 minutes. Then, there's the score. While the audience will hear Judy Garland's original vocals as Dorothy, the Sphere's version includes a re-recorded rendition of the original movie score for "new clarity." Sphere Studios separated the vocals from the instrumentals in the original tracks and used an orchestra to record a more detailed variation of the score, according to a video on the venue's official YouTube page. According to the Sphere, the new score transforms the original versions of songs like "Over the Rainbow" into music better fit for the venue's 167,000 programmable speakers built into the seats. "You can actually feel the voice and effects," Carolyn Blackwood, head of Sphere Studios, said in the video. "And with the 4D, you feel like you're there." The experience's producer, Jane Rosenthal, said in a video that their goal is to "maintain the integrity of the original filmmakers' intent." "It's part of our cultural history," Rosenthal added. "You can't just take it and do anything with it." The film was originally shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but the Sphere's screen is not a flat rectangle. To adapt the classic film, the team used artificial intelligence to make it fit the massive display and improve the resolution. Visual effects specialists took the original sets and "extended them realistically beyond that based on the production design," producer and CEO of software design company Magnopus Ben Grossmann said in a video about the experience. He explained that, working with a team at Google, they broke down the original "Wizard of Oz" frame by frame using super resolution, pinpointing how to enhance the 1930s shots. For example, several shots solely show a character from their waist to the top of their head. The team used character outpainting to restore the shots and transform into the large displays for the Sphere. Similarly, some of the original closeup shots with minimal background details are now wider shots, meaning they must show more of the set and additional characters. The team used "performance generation" technology to illustrate what characters could have been doing in the background. The use of AI for the project has come with some controversy. Some described the alteration of the original work as an offense to cinema. "honestly this is the ugliest and most dishonorable thing to happen to classic cinema in years," one social media user said on X. A recent Variety review of the showing called the effects, "creepy, applied over existing footage in a way that clearly interferes with the humanity of the underlying performances -- that is, if there was an underlying performance to begin with." USA Today, however, dubbed the show "nothing short of extraordinary." On the Sphere's website, the venue details how it uses AI and said, "Through 'The Wizard of Oz' at Sphere, Sphere is leading the way in applying AI and visual effects to bring new creative possibilities to the entertainment industry, and wonder to the world." Depending on seating, tickets for the film range in price from about $109 to $149. There are also two VIP packages available: the Good Witch Premium Experience and the Bad Witch Ultimate VIP Experience. The Good Witch experience -- which includes expedited entry, a food and beverage credit and premium seating -- costs about $320. The Bad Witch experience includes everything from the Good Witch package in addition to pre-show lounge access and a poster, and costs about $370.

Inside Opening Night of 'Wizard of Oz' at the Sphere: "We're Finally Off to See the Wizard"

"This is the moment that we've been waiting for. We're finally off to see the Wizard," James Dolan told the crowd at Las Vegas' Sphere on Thursday night as the venue debuted its immersive Wizard of Oz experience. Dolan, the executive chairman and CEO of Sphere Entertainment Co., welcomed guests to the world premiere while himself channeling that titular wizard, dressed in head-to-toe emerald -- complete with a green top hat. His fellow execs followed suit, each dressed as one of the film's main characters, including Sphere president and chief operating officer Jennifer Koester as Dorothy and producer Jane Rosenthal as Glinda the Good Witch. "What you're about to see tonight is our most powerful example yet of experiential storytelling in this new medium," Dolan promised the crowd. "For the first time, you're going to feel like you're part of the story. You'll see the film at unparalleled scale and resolution; you'll hear Judy Garland's voice with breathtaking new clarity, and yes, you will experience what it feels like to be inside a tornado. I can tell you, anybody can blow wind in your face; not anybody can make you feel like you're in a tornado." Rosenthal, who called working on the project the highlight of her career, invited guests to "close your eyes, tap your heels together three times and say it with me: There's no place like Sphere. There's no place like Sphere. There's no place like Sphere." What they've created at the venue is indeed a very unique experience. Upon arrival, attendees -- many of whom donned looks straight out of the Emerald City for opening night -- enter the Sphere's Atrium, with a hot air balloon and flying monkey hanging from the ceiling and a menacing Wizard of Oz head staring down from above. The room is drenched in sepia tones to really put one in the Kansas mindset, but quickly upon entering the theater, it's clear we're not in Kansas anymore. Before the film begins, the 160,000 square foot LED screen is designed to look like Radio City -- another Dolan property -- with the curtain down and sound of an orchestra tuning up in the background. Then it's off to the races, as viewers are thrown into the world of Oz. The tornado that brings Dorothy to that magical land is likely the standout moment, as massive fans create a huge wind storm -- complete with smoke and flying leaves -- in the venue to coincide with the moment on screen. At the premiere, guests were shrieking and holding onto their seats like they were on a rollercoaster; popcorn and snacks that had been picked up in the lobby beforehand flew across the room. But that's far from the only immersive element -- the venue's chairs jolt and shake whenever the Wicked Witch makes an appearance, toy apples fall from the sky when Dorothy fights with a talking tree and bubbles float down when Glinda uses her powers to cause a snowstorm. Columns of fire shoot into the air with the arrival of the Wizard, and electronic flying monkeys soar around the dome in another scene. The Sphere also re-recorded the orchestral score and made new sound effects for the film, while preserving the original dialogue and vocals. A.I. is used to fill out scenes to a 360-degree feel -- in Dorothy's home, for example, there's now a roof overhead and walls to both sides; for outdoor scenes, there's a heavily detailed sky and trees surrounding the characters. At a walkthrough with media on Thursday morning, visual effects specialist Ben Grossmann told reporters that when it came to using A.I., "We had a choice. We could either hire modern artists to reanimate those performances by hand, which we felt would destroy the integrity of the original performance," or embrace "a new technology that allows you to train on things that existed before it, so that it can reproduce those things accurately. And then we tested it for two years to make sure that if we used A.I., we would actually have more integrity to the original performances than if we didn't, because the only other alternatives were computer graphics that would be humans manipulating the performance." Dolan added that he doesn't "really think that it's a fair criticism" over the use of A.I. and wants people to see the movie before they cast judgement. Dolan also revealed during that press conversation that the team "replaced the faces of two very short, two-second characters in the movie" with himself and Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav, challenging audiences to find the moment. (Warner Bros. owns the rights to The Wizard of Oz film). And although Zaslav did not appear to be in attendance, opening night brought a starry guest list to Sin City that included Kris Jenner, Rosanna Arquette, Skylar Astin, Marissa Bode, Joseph "T'Bone" Burnett, Edie Falco, Joe Manganiello and Zahn McClarnon among the celeb attendees. The Wizard of Oz at Sphere is now open, currently scheduled to run through March 2026, with often multiple screenings a day.