Apple Unveils Vision Pro VR Headset: Can Tech Giant Finally Push Virtual Reality Into the Mainstream?

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s film which competed at the Cannes Film Festival. The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined ISIS. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms. The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.

EXCLUSIVE: Wild West, the genre-focused joint venture between French film companies Goodfellas (ex-Wild Bunch International) and Capricci, has unveiled a third slate of projects at a co-financing event in Nantes.

“Cries in Canadian.”

Nico Santos has marriage on the mind.

wrote on Twitter Friday shortly after news circulated that the series would not be returning for a third installment. The cancellation comes week’s after NBC’s last batch of decisions for on-the-bubble shows, which involved canceling “Grand Crew” after two seasons and “Young Rock” after three seasons.“I’m so sorry we didn’t get to make those episodes, but I’m immensely proud of the 23 episodes of the show we did put out there,” Spitzer continued.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.While McCarthy’s husband has been in a healthcare facility since early this year, a person familiar with her situation told the Journal there have been no dramatic changes recently that would drive her to step down. But there were signs of strife coming from the CFO’s office before the House of Mouse announced Thursday that she’d be leaving that were perhaps buried in the glowing comments that accompanied the announcement of her depature.“Christine McCarthy is one of the most admired financial executives in America, and her impact on The Walt Disney Company during 23 years of dedicated service cannot be overstated,” CEO Bob Iger said in a statement Thursday.Yet the Journal reported that McCarthy has butted heads with Iger since he returned as CEO in November and other top execs over the media and entertainment giant’s restructuring strategy.

Entertainer Nick Cannon says "it all makes sense" why he's a father to 12 children with six separate women. Admitting that he's had "manifestations or even these visions" from God that have indicated he would have a bountiful brood, Cannon, 42, believes he's found their meaning, as he explained in a podcast with Dr. Laura Berman.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s Eastern Promises industry platform has unveiled 27 film projects that will be showcased during its Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch and First Cut+ Works in Progress presentations. The most promising projects, selected by international juries, will receive awards with a total value of 115,000 EUR.  The showcasing of projects to industry professionals will take place in Karlovy Vary, during this year’s KVIFF Industry Days on July 3 (Works in Progress and Works in Development – Feature Launch) and July 4 (First Cut+ Works in Progress). For Works in Progress, 11 fiction and documentary feature films in the late stage of production or post-production from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa have been selected.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Filmmaker Victoria Bousis has partnered with Unique Network to enhance the immersive film experience of her award-winning film “Stay Alive, My Son.” Inspired by true events and based on the memoirs of Pin Yathay, “Tu Vivra, Mon Fils” (“Stay Alive, My Son”), Bousis says she wanted to “leverage technology to break the rules of traditional storytelling and educating audiences about Cambodia’s history.” The film, which will screen at Siggraph in August and is currently on the festival circuit, uses augmented reality and a virtual world that audiences experience through a VR headset.

Bloomberg report. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman speculated the weaker model will feature a lesser chip and less impressive display but won’t compromise on the core functionalities of the headset (seeing other people and hand-tracking tech).The evidence is in the name of the initial product itself: Vision “Pro,” with the implication being that there will be a non-“Pro” version coming up.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Apple this week announced Vision Pro, its augmented-reality and VR headset priced at a cool $3,500, seven times the price of Meta’s upcoming Quest 3 headset. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, apparently, was not blown away by the Apple reveal. “From what I’ve seen initially, I’d say the good news is that there’s no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws and physics that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of,” Zuckerberg told employees at an all-hands meeting Thursday, per a report by the Verge. Apple’s Vision Pro will use a higher-resolution display than Meta’s Quest 3, Zuckerberg noted. The Vision Pro will deliver 23 million pixels across two displays, more pixels for each eye than a 4K TV. However, with the high-end display “and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more” than a Quest 3, slated to ship in the fall of 2023, and “requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it. They made that design tradeoff and it might make sense for the cases that they’re going for,” Zuckerberg said.

The WGA has detailed its plans to target Apple to coincide with its Worldwide Developers Conference.

reporting Apple’s been spending over $1 billion per year to get the product out the door. It’s aiming to be a technological jump akin to the introduction of the iPhone but for the mixed reality space.

Apple has entered the virtual reality arena, announcing a long-anticipated new headset and augmented reality platform called Vision Pro.

Disney CEO Bob Iger appeared at Apple’s WWDC 2023 event Monday to bolster the reveal of Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro augmented reality headset that is due for release in 2024. There, it was revealed that Disney+ will be coming to the headset’s roster of launch-window apps.“We’re so proud to yet again be partnering the greatest storytelling company in the world with the most innovative technology company in the world to bring you real life magic,” Iger said, alongside a sizzle reel for Disney+ on Vision Pro that hinted at a three-dimensional, more immersive experience for viewers than those viewing the streamer on a standard screen.

Apple may have entered the virtual reality arena earlier today with the unveiling of a new platform and headset, launched with the help of Disney boss Bob Iger, but in the real world it spent the day being targeted by writers.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta — still trying to make the metaverse happen — unveiled its next-generation VR and mixed-reality headset, the Meta Quest 3, which will ship this fall for a price point starting at $500. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg announced the Quest 3 in an Instagram post Thursday. The headset is “the first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality” capabilities, according to Zuckerberg. It’s 40% thinner than the Quest 2 and “more comfortable” than its predecessor, he added. Meta’s announcement comes ahead of Apple’s 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference next week, where Apple is expected to introduce its own mixed-reality headset.

practicing to be a mermaid since she was a kid) or belting the ballad “Part of Your World.” Instead, she lists her castmates’ musical numbers: “Jonah [Hauer-King, who plays Prince Eric, his] song is wonderful — ‘Wild Uncharted Waters’ — his performance of that is iconic. And then ‘The Scuttlebutt’ is amazing.

EXCLUSIVE: The layoffs impacting thousands of Disney staff in the U.S. have spread to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While the lineup of Cannes Film Market’s newly launched initiative Cannes Investors Circle has remained under wraps, Variety has learned about four of the nine projects which were pitched during the invitation-only event. The initiative was created by the film market’s new executive director Guillaume Esmiol to connect VIP private investors with select filmmakers and producers boasting a stellar track records. Curated by experts such as Medici’s Tamara Tatishvili, Arte Cinema’s Rémi Burah and financier Serge Hayat, the nine projects are budgeted between €2 million and €12 million. Among these are “Dracula. The Second Coming” directed by Radu Jude, the Romanian helmer of Berlinale prizewinning “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” directed by Ada Solomon at microFILM; “Rivo Alto,” directed by Clément Cogitore (“The Wakhan Front”) and produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond at Kazak Productions (“Titane”); “The Girl” directed by Marina Ziolkowski (“But You Look So Good”) and produced by Philippe Gompel (“Cherry”) at Manny Films, and “The Birthday Party” directed by Miguel Angel Jimenez (“Chaika”) and produced by Giorgos Karnavas (“Triangle of Sadness”) at Heretic.