Announcement

ESO Goes IMAX 3D

29 November 2012

ESO is excited to announce the commencement of a new collaboration with Australian production company December Media and Swinburne 3D Productions to produce the IMAX film Hidden Universe. This venture represents a fantastic opportunity to showcase ESO’s spectacular telescopes, dedicated to the exploration of the Universe. The Australian production team has recently completed filming at both Paranal, home of ESO’s flagship facility, the VLT and ALMA, an international astronomy facility, supported by Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

Russell Scott of Swinburne 3D Productions is directing the AUS$8.6 million film and has been on location in Paranal over the past few weeks. “Filming in the Atacama desert amongst such world-class observing facilities has been an amazing experience,” he says, “it really is the perfect place to undertake a guided tour into the world of state-of-the-art telescopes.

The film is a December Media production with Swinburne University’s Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Astronomical data obtained from the VLT, and ALMA as well as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will be used to create giant-screen 3D versions of celestial structures such as the Whirlpool Galaxy and the Crab Nebula as well as a 3D simulation of the evolution of the Universe. Together with live actions scenes filmed on location in Chile, these images will create a completely immersive IMAX experience.

We’re making a film about what lies within the gaze of the new generation of telescopes,” explains producer Stephen Amezdroz. “Hidden Universe will reveal as never before the incredible links between our own nature and the rest of the Universe and the possibility of life on other planets — giving audiences a dramatic new view of the cosmos.”

Hidden Universe is due for release in 2013.

Links

Contacts

Lars Lindberg Christensen
Head, ESO education and Public Outreach Department
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel:  +49-89-3200-6761
Cell:  +49-173-3872-621
Email: lars@eso.org

Russell Scott
Director, Swinburne 3D Productions
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
m: +61-(0)432 925 728

About the Announcement

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Images

IMAX filming at Paranal
IMAX filming at Paranal