The newly announced “Blade Runner 2049” will extend beyond the movie screen when it is released in October 2017: Sci-fi fans will also step into the world of a movie with virtual reality experiences that will be exclusively distributed on VR headsets from Facebook-owned Oculus, the company announced at its Oculus Connect developer conference Thursday.
“‘Blade Runner’ has always pushed the boundaries of cinema, visionary art, design and story and bringing the sequel to this beloved sci-fi property to VR gives us an opportunity to push those boundaries further,” said Oculus head of experiences Colum Slevin. “We look forward to giving audiences a new way to experience this iconic title in an entirely new and reimagined way.”
And “Blade Runner” isn’t the only famous franchise coming to Oculus. The company has also struck a deal with Disney to bring VR experiences based on Disney characters to its platform.
The “Blade Runner 2049” VR experiences are being produced by Alcon Interactive, a new subsidiary of Alcon Entertainment, the company that is producing the movie in conjunction with Thunderbird Films and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions. There’s no word yet on whether Disney is working with any outside partners for its VR experiences.
