‘Elvis AI show more like time travel than ABBA hologram’

Image source, Elvis Presley Enterprises LLC

Image caption, Elvis Evolution will begin in London and then shows will later start in cities around the world

By Danny Fullbrook & Roberto Perrone

BBC News, Hertfordshire

Experiencing the AI hologram of Elvis Presley is less like Abba Voyage and more like time travel, according to the man whose company created it.

Andrew McGuinness, from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, founded Layered Reality who created the Elvis Evolution show.

He said: “You’re going to be stepping in to intricate sets that make you feel like you’ve time travelled.”

The CEO explained visitors interacted with actors and walked in the king’s “shoes” to experience his life story.

Image source, Layered Reality

Image caption, Andrew McGuinness said his immersive experiences let guests explore “fun, exciting parallel worlds”

At the end of the experience, visitors watch a performance of an AI powered holographic Elvis in an intimate space.

“It’s more about how we want people to feel, we use temperature, taste and smell to make people feel like they are in Memphis in 1958,” he explained.

The Elvis Estate provided Layered Reality with thousands of hours of live footage, home video and still images of the King.

“Abba Voyage had the luxury of capturing live performers, but we’re not that fortunate,” Mr McGuinness said.

He added: “The AI generates an authentic version of Elvis, born of original material, but it [also] allows you to do new things with him.”

Image source, Layered Reality

Image caption, Harry Potter actor Tom Felton worked with Layered Reality when he played Guy Fawkes for its Gunpowder Plot experience

Mr McGuinness founded Layered Reality in 2017 with the objective of combining emerging technology with theatrical story telling to create a new form of entertainment.

“People didn’t want to just watch a story play out in front of them, they wanted to be part of it,” he said.

“Theatre and very talented actors make that personal, the tech allows us to achieve things that otherwise would be impossible.”

Image source, Layered Reality

Image caption, Andrew McGuinness believes combining technology with live theatre can create a new form of entertainment

The company now runs two venues in London – one based on Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds and another retelling the story of The Gunpowder Plot.

“People feel like they’re actually in 1605 or face to face with a Martian fighting machine,” Mr McGuinness said.

Image source, Layered Reality

Image caption, Layered Reality said they used all the human senses to create immersive narrative experiences

The Layered Reality founder said everything they learnt about story telling from previous work will be implemented into Elvis Evolution.

Although many have compared the project to the Abba virtual concert show, Mr McGuinness said the experience is more about narrative, like a film.

Small groups move through the experience making it “far more intimate than Abba Voyage but equally uplifting and fun”.

The show is still being worked on and the life-sized digital Elvis will make his stage debut in November at a central London location which has yet to be confirmed.

“He’s lines of code for now, he’s not walking around Harpenden, buying a coffee from Gail’s,” joked Mr McGuinness.

Image source, Baillie Walsh

Image caption, Abba performed in motion capture suits to help create their digital avatars, this could not be recreated for Elvis Evolution

Presley, who rose to fame in the 1950s, died in 1977 aged 42.

He was know for hits including Hound Dog and Suspicious Minds and would have celebrated his 89th birthday on 8 January.

A film about Presley’s life, directed by Baz Luhrmann, was released in 2022 and another movie, Priscilla, released in the UK this week, examines the relationship between the singer and his ex-wife.

Rise of virtual concerts

Virtual concerts and events have risen in popularity since Abba launched Abba Voyage in London in May 2022.

The concert recreated a 1970s-era digital version of the singers who performed in their very own purpose-built 3,000-capacity arena in east London.

It was created by 1,000 visual effects artists and took one billion computing hours to animate the avatars. It makes an estimated £2m per week and, since 2022, has contributed £322.6m in turnover to the London economy.

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