Sony Pictures Inks Virtual Reality Deal With Reality One

The companies will create VR experiences based on Sony Pictures’ films and also will create original content.

Sony Pictures’ fledgling virtual reality group and Madison Wells Media’s Reality One are partnering to develop and finance VR experiences based on the studio’s films and franchises as well as original content. Global distribution will be managed by Sony Pictures, starting later this year.

Sony’s own VR group has begun building a slate of narrative VR content for the studio’s motion picture group. Reality One, co-founded by Gigi Pritzker and Clint Kisker in 2015, recently co-produced and co-published Gnomes and Goblins, a VR production in partnership with Wevr and created by Jon Favreau.

“Sony Pictures will expand our efforts to develop new audiences and new revenue from our studio’s content, leverage longstanding relationships with some of the best creative minds in the business and explore exciting opportunities for high-quality, interactive storytelling in this new medium,” Jake Zim, senior VP, virtual reality at Sony Pictures, said Tuesday in a statement about the deal.

Pritzker added that this could “allow both Sony Pictures and Reality One to take maximum advantage of Sony’s wealth of intellectual property, relationships with established storytellers and willingness to experiment with new technologies.”