Wall Street Journal (04/08/25) Bousquette, Isabelle

James Dolan, executive chair and CEO of Sphere Entertainment, recently decided to present “The Wizard of Oz” in the Las Vegas Sphere, which boasts one of the highest resolution screens in the world. Of course, showing an 86-year-old movie that was shot with 35mm cameras on a 160,000-square-foot curved, immersive screen has come with its share of challenge. Since its 2023 grand opening, the venue's 17,600-seat theater has hosted performers like U2 and the Eagles and shown motion pictures filmed specifically for its unique screen. After cutting an intellectual property deal with Warner Bros. and receiving pitches from several artificial-intelligence companies, Dolan went with Google. To make the whole thing work, Google Cloud and its Google DeepMind research unit invented new AI methods to enhance resolution and extend backgrounds to include characters and scenery not in the original shots. Google calls these techniques "performance generation" and "outpainting." The Sphere will debut "Oz" on Aug. 28, with AI having touched more than 90% of the 1939 movie.

Read the full story from Wall Street Journal.