(Jaunt story) Disney and other media giants are betting VR is the next big play in entertainment
Backed with nearly $101 million in venture capital, Jaunt has built a library of nearly 300 pieces of mostly short-form VR content that includes a 360-degree view of a concert by former Beatle Paul McCartney, a panoramic of "The Lion King" on Broadway and a bullet-splattered "Escape of the Living Dead" video segment.
...George Kliavkoff, the former NBC Universal and Hearst executive who joined Jaunt in September as its president and chief executive.
Jaunt co-produced "Invisible," a six-part supernatural drama series created by "The Bourne Identity" director Doug Liman's 30 Ninjas company that premiered on Samsung's VR service before being shown on Jaunt's VR app, YouTube, Facebook and co-producer Conde Nast's "The Scene" digital video platform. "Invisible" tells the story of a powerful New York family with the supernatural ability to make themselves invisible.
In January, Jaunt announced a slate of five new series to be produced at its 10,000-square-foot Santa Monica, California, studio, including a six-part stoner comedy series "Bad Trip" and a series based on the 1992 cult horror movie "The Lawnmower Man." Klaivkoff won't say when the shows will be making their debut.
Kliavkoff says Disney, which in September 2015 led Jaunt's $65 million Series C round, will soon offer its fans a 360-degree online trip to Pandora, the mythical planet in James Cameron's film "Avatar," which is also the backdrop for the media giant's new "Pandora—The World of Avatar" attraction at its Disney Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.
Jaunt doesn't yet have a deal with IMAX. But it's venturing into China, the world's second-largest market, where its joint venture with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group will soon distribute more than 80 pieces of VR content, says Kliavkoff, including some from Jaunt's library.
Virtual reality is already taking hold in China. By 2020 the government's China Electronics Standardization Institute projects companies will be selling 55 billion yuan ($8 billion worth) of goggles, headsets and content in that country alone.
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