VR explosions are en route as Michael Bay teams with The Rogue Initiative

By Dan Isacsson Published June 18, 2018

Finally, explosive-obsessed director Michael Bay is making his way into the virtual reality arena. Joining forces with content developer The Rogue Initiative in Los Angeles, the award-winning action veteran will work to create original entertainment properties for the platform.

With Bay directing and The Rogue Initiative as producer, the two parties will be cooperating to create “original entertainment properties” in the director’s “signature style.” Exactly what type of VR experience this entails isn’t described, but considering Bay’s love for explosions and massive battles on the big screen, it’s more likely you’ll see 360 degree movie than games.

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But Bay will also be joining the board of The Rogue Initiative as a strategic adviser, together with Lynda Obst, who worked as a producer on Christopher Nolan’s 2014’s sci-fi blockbuster Interstellar. They’ll be joining advisers including the president of Bay Films, Matthew Cohan; president of the VR newcomer Jaunt Studios; and executive director of Disney/TechStars, Cody Simms.

“I’m excited about building new visual worlds for this innovative medium with them,” Bay said in a statement on June 15. His enthusiasm was shared by co-founder and CEO of The Rogue Initiative, Pete Blumel, who said they’re “thrilled” to work with a director of Bay’s action caliber.

The company is a story-driven production studio that works together with partners from the media industry to create VR experiences. It works with alumni from Amblin Entertainment, Pixar, Dreamworks Animation, Sony Pictures, Disney, and Infinity Ward.

Considering the scale of the company’s operations it wouldn’t be a surprise to eventually see Bay associated with other media than movies. Interactivity is a large part of VR, after all. It adds a lot of presence — that buzzword describing the sense of actually being present in the VR experience — and Oculus is already working on bringing dynamics into the VR movie experience. It would make sense for Bay to be involved in bringing that sense of presence into the movies he’ll be working on in VR. But we do wonder how it would have been if he wouldn’t have turned his back on the Transformers.

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