It is only natural for Venice Film Festival participants to get to know each other, and when award-winning Chuck Chae came through a production of Alien Rescue, we immediately felt a kinship. He won Venice with his visually stunning and emotionally charged Buddy VR in 2018, and when he experienced Alien Rescue we shared our ideas about the future of immersive entertainment. As it turned out, we had matching visions and found ourselves wondering what a partnership might look like. After all, Chae has extensive experience in VR production and is pioneering Ai driven 'digital human' research at AriaStudio, and I see a future of storytelling where Ai NPCs can play a significant role in expansive open world narrative experiences.
After many months of discussions, we decided to formalize our relationship with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and we are both excited to explore the future of VR storytelling as friends and partners.