DUBAI: Majid Al-Futtaim’s VOX Cinemas is introducing CTRL, the region’s first interactive movie experience, which lets the audience decide how the plot of the movie unfolds.
The new interactive experience will launch in the UAE and Saudi Arabia on Aug. 5.
The innovation from VOX Cinemas is in partnership with entertainment and tech company, Kino Industries, a global leader in interactive cinema and consumer content. Its proprietary technology, CtrlMovie, enables filmmakers to create interactive films and provides the platform to distribute them to movie theaters as well as home entertainment and mobile devices.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with Kino Industries and launch the Middle East’s first interactive movie, which puts the audience in control of countless adaptable storylines,” said Toni El Massih, chief content officer, VOX Cinemas.
The first interactive movie to be screened through CTRL is the action thriller “Late Shift,” the world’s first interactive feature-length film, which enables the audience to decide the fate of the lead character and the course of the movie using an app-based voting system.
The movie has multiple storylines consisting of 180 decision points and seven alternative endings. The audience typically makes 40 to 50 choices throughout the movie. The technology aggregates the votes from the audience and chooses the most popular option.
“Late Shift” was directed and co-written by Tobias Weber, award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Kino Industries, and Michael Robert Johnson, who wrote Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes.” The critically acclaimed movie has won several awards including the 2018 BAFTA Cymru Award.
“Using pioneering technology, CTRL seamlessly combines the realism and production values of film with the interactivity of a videogame to create a new dimension of engagement,” El Massih said.
“Having sold out at the Beijing International Film Festival in less than five minutes, I have no doubt that this unique and exhilarating participatory experience will prove hugely popular with cinemagoers in the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Daily screenings of “Late Shift” will take place at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Sunday to Thursday) and 5 pm, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. (Friday and Saturday) at VOX Cinemas at Mall of the Emirates, Yas Mall, City Center Mirdif, City Center Al Zahia, The Galleria Al Maryah Island and Wafi City in the UAE.
The experience will also be rolled out across select VOX Cinemas in Saudi Arabia.
