A new VR experience will take users on a tour of the universe with none other than Professor Stephen Hawking.
UK-based Atlantic Productions announced Stephen Hawking’s Black Holes Immersive Experience last week. The production company had been working on the piece with the physicist himself before his death in March 2018. It’s a location-based VR experience that will include narration from Hawking himself. It’s due for release in early 2020 alongside a new theatrical documentary recounting Hawking’s life.
That’s about all we know for now. We don’t know where the piece will be hosted nor which headset it will use.
“We are especially pleased as our father always searched for innovative ways to explain science to the widest audience possible and was fascinated by the potential of new technologies to enthral his audience,” Lucy Hawking, Professor Hawking’s daughter, said in a prepared statement. “This project, which began in his office in Cambridge two years ago, will now take viewers on a stunning cosmic journey to reveal our father’s vision of the universe.”
We can’t wait to see more of this project. Experiences like Spheres prove that VR is the perfect medium for space exploration. Combining that sense of immersion with Professor Hawking’s passion for and knowledge of the universe could make for amazing VR.
Atlantic Productions is no stranger to VR. The studio’s immersive offshoot, Alchemy VR, has worked on experiences starring Sir David Attenborough, Tim Peake Dame Judi Dench and many more. The company’s Space Descent VR with Tim Peake piece is currently showing at the Science Museum in London.
