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The Sphere Is Ready to Take Visitors Over the Rainbow and Into ‘The Wizard of Oz’

The Las Vegas attraction on Tuesday turned its exosphere into Dorothy's house, as tickets for the supersized and AI-enhanced version of the classic film go on sale.

June 10, 2025 9:57am

Early Tuesday morning, the Sphere in Las Vegas was hit by a tornado, or at least a virtual tornado.

The building’s “Exosphere” swirled with storm clouds, and a digital house appeared when the smoke cleared, with a pair of legs and ruby slippers, 50 feet long and 22 feet high emerging from the Sphere. The stunt is meant to kick off the Sphere’s announcement that it would begin selling tickets to The Wizard of Oz, which will premiere in the venue Aug. 28.

“We thought it was appropriate to start with a stunt that really matches the size and scale of Sphere,” Sphere president and COO Jennifer Koester tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “I think the tornado showing up on the exosphere for our on sale moment is a good representation of what will happen inside the bowl when we think about an immersive experience of the Wizard of Oz.”

As Koester notes, as larger than life as the on sale stunt is, it is merely teeing up the actual Wizard of Oz at the Sphere itself, which is being produced by Sphere Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery, Google (which will contribute its artificial intelligence expertise) and Magnopus, with Academy Award and Emmy-nominee Jane Rosenthal among the producers.

“When you look at the original film, what it did in terms of technology at its time, going into Technicolor, you look at the magic of it, whether it’s the ruby slippers or the tornado scene. So much of what’s in The Wizard of Oz that could naturally fit into an immersive environment like the Sphere,” Rosenthal tells THR in an interview. “What you can do now, when you hear Judy Garland sing ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow,’ it’s a whole different emotional experience.”

Indeed, in a statement, Warner Bros. Discovery film chiefs Michael DeLuca and Pam Abdy note that the original film was an originator in Hollywood technology.

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/inside-wizard-of-oz-sphere-1236261268/