Special Episode - From the Venice Film Festival August 30th, 2025 ft. Doug Liman and the 30 Ninjas team

It's Charlie Pink live at the Venice Film Festival in the immersive section here on Vito Island I am with the 30 Ninjas team and director Doug Liman talking about their new experience Android which I just saw on the mu-hen headset, which is like the Apple Vision Pro, but one-third the weight and But otherwise all of its features and its camera and everything else Seems to be it's equal. Anyway, I was excited to see a great fiction film in 183 V. It was really exciting experience It was you know what we've all been waiting for which is the ability to be inside of a Hollywood movie I think that's the holy grail of Immersive entertainment, but let me aside from Doug. Let me introduce the 30 Ninjas team and Doug's partner Hey Jed Weintraub from 30 Ninjas. I'm a partner and We help we we help we we help tell stories and technology I focus a little tongue-tied It's because we we were celebrating asteroid last night till very late and then we were playing tennis at the crack of dawn this morning Oh, there's not been a lot of sleep by the 30 Ninjas team We are we were out on the streets of Venice both both at a very swanky party at the Amman Hotel and then Literally on the streets with a bunch of local Venetians last night until about 3 30 in the morning And then we did wake up at 7 to go play tennis and swim in the Adriatic Which is it which is a real immersive experience? Wait, did you actually go swimming? Okay, I'll be the responsible partner right now Well, that's good Um, I'm Jelena tatlock co-founder of the company with Doug and with Jed I'm a creative technologist and we Just a little bit about the company. We started the company to really develop stories with Doug outside of the studio system and challenge Expectations of what stories are so allow us to really Make stories in a new way on new technologies because being at the you know at that intersection of new technology and Storytelling makes we think for more exciting stories and growth in in narrative storytelling in general So you've had the most sleep, but I feel like you could have tightened that answer a little bit Yes, I know but you guys have a soundbite people gets one take You know, but we you know, we've always I've always been issued in my career and sort of how technology and storytelling You know how how how I can tell a story today that I couldn't tell before and you know But my role models are people like Jim Cameron who like his movies, you know, they couldn't have existed Before that he created the technology to tell them and so 30 ninjas is about like how how can we? How can we incorporate new technology and storytelling and make make movies and VR? movies and Interactive movies and and things that previous generations of storytellers were not able to do And it's really interesting because we've been working with with new technology with immersive technologies for almost 10 years now since We first produced invisible, which is the first ever long-form VR VR series in 360 and with interactive technologies You know going back to CD-ROM and the first project on Twitter Interactive met mystery on Twitter told in association with one of Doug's television shows and we've always had like We always get to play with new software or hardware platforms in the case of this project We're getting got to play with both a new software platform Android XR and a new hardware platform putting it on the new headset but what we've really discovered in at the intersection of storytelling and technology is that the combination of These new generation of headsets with super high-resolution displays and very fast processors and very easily location aware very smart hand tracking and Generative AI and one of the unique things about Android XR as a platform is that it's got Gemini always You know always on and we use a front end to Gemini to recreate DK's voice. You're not speaking to the assistant you're speaking to a fictional version of DK Metcalf played by DK Metcalf is that really the opportunities opened up by both being able to tell a really Realistic and no headache immersive story to be able to bring people The audience really a lot closer to the world because we've done a lot of it with visual effects Which enables you to do things you can't do just shooting in stereo and then to be able to extend their story experience With a generative AI character and an immersive world That's sort of the holy grail that we've been I feel like we've been learning and and doing stuff together for a long time And they're all sort of coming together now in a way where we really should be able to grow It's like watching the film that you may have used AI in certain scenes, is that right or no? It is actually not correct. This this is this film is really built by hand and And it's motion It's the actors were actually all captured at Google's Digital human captured top-secret scanning facility and then we're all animated in in engine So there's always a little bit of in unreal Unique but one of the things that let us do well First of all, let us put people into space But also because these characters are inside a Sony space capsule Asteroid is a world Doug has been building trying to build and building in his head for a very very long time now It enabled us to put five people in that capsule and get really close to it in a way that you never could with Technology capsule designed for three and I I wanted this to be these are you know the world of asteroid is you know, people have no business going into space and People You know going into space not with lofty ambitions, but to make money And five of them crammed into a into a teeny little Soyuz capsule the way like a fishing boat, you know Yeah, maybe like overcrowded with people trying to catch fish. Yeah Yeah, did were you inspired while I was watching it? Did I'm first of all you wrote it as well as directed it Doug One of the things I thought while I was watching it is oh, this is like the treasure of Sierra Madre Right the old John Huston film. Yeah first of all, I'm not I'm not sure where it leaves me in terms of the movie because I I'm so proud of Asteroid and I'm like, I'm not sure you know, I'm like wow, can it even an IMAX can a movie? Give you the same immersive experience As you said, it's asteroid puts you inside a Hollywood movie, you know, and we haven't seen that before I'd certainly hadn't seen that and other stuff out there and So but it's but the plan had always been that eventually I'm gonna go make the feature film, but it's that You know the film evolved in the course of making it as most of my films do so now I'd have to go back and rewrite The script based on what I learned, right? Yeah It did feel to me like a big movie idea, right but it had to be streamlined for the medium you were Developing it for because obviously in a big Hollywood movie we wouldn't see something of the billionaires relationship with his assistant Yeah, something about the guy being a sports hero And so there would be more of a character setup to sustain the longer Version, right? So I was watching thinking is this a trailer or you know, is there the character development coming? So but it was very very visually Exciting and I was not surprised to hear that it was done with the game engine because it was so cinematic You know, so I think the world building in it is is really extraordinary. Are you guys developing other immersive projects? Doug is nodding. That's sort of Doug is nodding. The producer is hesitating. Does that mean you don't want to talk about that? we're always developing new projects and we actually One of the things we do is we have a number of creative ideas and then When there's new technology, you know, and then always evaluating what's the best where where's the best place for this idea? and how can it evolve and really grow and be helped by and and transformed by The new technology so asteroid was a feature script but changed and evolved not just to make it shorter But to also make it work really well for the Android XR Gemini as Doug said the new film will be more even more native to the platform Yeah, I mean, I think just flipping it back to the business side It's also the opportunity of where's the evolution of technology because that's at our core of looking for the new thing So is it is it going to be a guy? Is it going to be our glasses? Is it going to be? The next generation of Android XR, is it going to be something else using it? Using AI as well both for visually at using AI to expand the world for that for user interaction You know this I'm gonna toss to my partner you were you know, you're you're witnessing, you know kind of You know a process that's gonna be playing out in front of an audience In front of an audience because yeah, yes there there is the film and of asteroid and it's a complete movie the beginning middle and it's short and it Hopefully leaves you wanting to know a lot more and know more about the characters and spend more time there And then there is the story extension, which is powered by AI and Gemini the Julian has been building out and That's like a living breathing thing I mean, you're you know DK Metcalf who's a giant American football player who plays himself in the movies He's he has no business going into outer space, right? At all. He is he's he thought it would be like a quick thing to make some money and it was manager thought it was a good idea and he's he's he's not prepared at all for this and The story extension follows him after the after the movie ends But you know, that's a none of that is scripted it's all programmed into the AI, you know, it's guided and It's you know What you experienced here at Venice is gonna be different than what people will experience when it finally comes out because we're learning based on Putting it on its feet and even once it comes out. I imagine it will continue to iterate and change and evolve and There's gonna be a relationship with the audience with asteroid Because of the AI component of the story extension that I don't think we've seen before where yes the the the immersive VR experience of the headset is getting you inside a Hollywood movie because Asteroid was conceived of as a Hollywood movie. I make Hollywood movies and make big world-building Hollywood movies This is as big an idea as I've ever had. Mm-hmm But you're getting to experience it, you know with movie stars It has all the stuff of a Hollywood movie, but you're getting to experience it with the intimacy of VR so that just hasn't been done before But there's but that's complete and it's done and I'm super proud of it But there is a living breathing component that happens from this day forward of the story extension And the ability to live in the world of asteroid because the movie is only 12 minutes To live there longer and with the characters and and that is you're gonna If you check back in with it, you're gonna see how we ourselves are learning how to use this technology to best Give the you know continue this story Right. Let me say one thing and then ask two last questions. So first of all, I I really really liked the Immersive feeling of the 360 it kind of filled up my field of view and as I recall you were making 360 movies at one point, right? Yeah, this is 180 But I heard you speak like we like to hear stories told by good storytellers Right, we don't yeah, we don't just make our own story like that, you know, like a hundred percent I'm excited, you know, yeah, I went to Taurus Movie today's a great storyteller. I'm like I want it. I want his version exactly. I don't want my 100% so Is that like? At we are telling the story of asteroid like you you can't change how asteroid ends, right? But meanwhile you get to choose where you're looking within the frame. Mm-hmm And so you have some level of control. Mm-hmm And I feel like that's really the magic of VR is Giving the audience the feeling like they're there and they they have some agency But meanwhile, we the storytellers actually are keeping all the and we're telling a great story with great characters so just to clarify one thing that I'm a little confused about what I just saw the Version of asteroid that I just saw is going to be part of the launch of Mugen the content for moving. That's right Is it just that short film or is there a longer feature with multiple parts to it? I mean the 30 images team can comments as well But we'll have what you saw was a preview right of the complete experience So how long how long will the complete experience be? So the well the film that you saw is complete the story extension Has three more levels to it so four levels total But because you're speaking to the AI character that as a timed experience Can expand or contract depending on how much time you spent right? So you explore different places on the Just to be a little story spoiler for anybody who wants to now would be a time Yeah, get off this podcast we only have a couple minutes left get off this podcast because we're gonna get some spoilers So in the story extension you are in the film your the film ends with one character Haley Steinfeld's character Anna Where it's pretty clear that what she's telling you isn't the truth Then you speak to another character who was supposedly left for dead But is still actually alive on the asteroid and you try to rescue him You find out through talking to him where and I was lying as well So there's a certain amount of depth to the story Yes That you can uncover you can spend as much or as little time in the story extension as you want to during that so in the story extension would I be able to interrogate the characters myself DK Metcalf is the only character you can talk to there's only one character that you can talk to so you can uncover pieces of Audio and you can ask for now, but I'm saying this is a living breathing as I'm saying you are Yes, we Who knows what I mean? There's there's no there's no limitation to what Jelena will be able to to pull off and what you know, and we are I mean this just is I I no one has done something like this. There's no first of all, there wasn't the technology I mean because the Android XR has that as Gemini built into it the large language model built into it. So it is a you know what Jelena is doing it should be clear like you're getting a taste it's something that will be way further along when when this headset comes out, but but I just can't can't imagine that that 30 ninjas that we're not going to continue to iterate and learn because we are this is as normally, you know, I mean, I love the fact that we're doing this and we're doing this and in partnership with the audience that they are going to be experienced it and comments we get back will influence how how where it goes and so you know, I I Love airing my shit, you know and being like, okay, you know, and if we hear this isn't part, you know and like let's but I think what she's done so far is is friggin fantastic and and and truly groundbreaking in terms of because my film, you know, it is only 12 minutes and and it is It is a taste of a giant Hollywood movie. And so, you know the fact that Julian is Finding a way to to extend the story and you could you can spend a lot more time on the asteroid if you want to Really really compelling. Thank you so much for being so