Wizard of Oz Gets Immersive Makeover at Las Vegas Sphere
Sphere Entertainment was out with the release date of its long-awaited reimagining of The Wizard Of Oz this week.
The Sphere will soon host a reimagined Wizard Of Oz.
Key Facts:
- The new film will debut August 28th
- It will be a fully immersive and unforgettable retelling of the classic
- From the Edge, an extreme sports film designed for the Sphere, will follow in 2026
If you needed a really good reason to brave the 110+ temperatures of a late Las Vegas summer, Sphere Entertainment might have just given you a reason to break out the sunscreen and portable fans. The most talked-about remake in years will finally begin showing at the Sphere on August 28th.
Dorothy Gale will return to a slightly altered venue than her first appearance on the silver screen way back in 1939. The Sphere boasts titles like multi-sensory, immersive, and even experiential medium, but none of those adjectives will prepare you for the trip of a lifetime.
From the tornado to the flying monkeys to Emerald City, you’ll feel right in the wicker basket with Toto.
And at a cost of a million dollars a minute or $80 million for the entire 80-minute show, you probably should. While this production is twenty minutes shorter than the original, we are going to guess they were able to skip over some of the dragging pace and stilted dialogue while still keeping the excitement.
We can only assume they kept the excitement, the adventure and the friends we made along the way storyline that hooked so many generations of children in the intervening eight decades.
It’s probably a good time to mention that the original Wizard of Oz ran almost 120 minutes before being cut to the 101 minutes that we are all familiar with today. One of the songs that came very, very close to getting the ax after the test screenings in July 1939 was Somewhere Over the Rainbow, so here’s tohoping that they at least kept that little ditty.
Also of interest is given the ability of just the outside of the Sphere to show something like 256 million different colors. The inside screen has 16k resolution and covers about 160,000 square feet
However, are the producers of this new extravaganza willing to keep almost 20% of the entire show in black and white like the original? That would be a very big ask, but we can’t imagine what that transition to color would feel like once they are out of Kansas with specs like those, probably like your mind-melting.
Details are still sparse, but we do know companies as diverse as Google, Warner Bros., and Magnopus were involved in the collaboration, as were Zack Winokur, Jennifer Lame, and Jane Rosenthal.
We expect that with the reduced running time, the new creation will be available at several daily viewing times through late Summer and into the Fall.
Our goal for The Sphere Experience is a diverse slate that leverages Sphere’s power as an experiential medium. The Wizard of Oz at Sphere and From The Edge will push that vision forward in different ways.” – Jim Dolan/Sphere Entertainment, CEO, Press Release
From the Edge is being filmed at seven extreme sports locations around the world, including Las Vegas, Austin, Switzerland, Dubai, Jordan, Maui, and The Bahamas.
It will feature some of the world’s best Free Divers, Surfers, Rock Climbers, Base Jumpers, and Skiers doing what only they can do.
Husband-and-wife duo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are the new film’s producers. Their first film, Free Solo, induced acrophobia in audiences worldwide without a $2.3 billion immersive theater.
What they might accomplish with all this new technology will almost certainly have audiences clutching their armrests.
This film is scheduled for release in early 2026 and is expected to further showcase the Sphere as the home for innovative new media and bleeding-edge technology that has never been seen before. From Lollipop Guilds to free solo climbs, the Sphere is turning immersive storytelling into the new Vegas main event.
