Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Sony Pictures Entertainment, and IMAX Corporation have today announced a collaboration on a new virtual reality (VR) experience, Can You Walk the Walk?. Putting you right out onto a high-wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, the demo will be presented on Project Morpheus as a promotional activity for the forthcoming Joseph Gordon-Levitt motion-picture, The Walk.

In the accompanying film, The Walk, Philippe Petit (Gordon-Levitt), guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), is aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, who overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan. Already honoured as the opening night of the New York Film Festival, The Walk is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, but most of all, to the Towers of the World Trade Center. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the screenplay is by Robert Zemeckis & Christopher Browne, based on the book To Reach the Clouds by Philippe Petit, and produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis, and Jack Rapke.

In Can You Walk the Walk?, Project Morpheus users can experience for themselves what it was like to balance in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Can You Walk the Walk? invites users to try Petit’s walk for themselves – stepping out onto the wire to make Petit’s historic pass between the towers. Petit trained for years to make his ‘coup’ possible; only in VR is such a feat possible for the rest of us.

Commenting on the announcement, Dwight Caines, president, Theatrical Marketing, said, “Can You Walk the Walk? is a thrilling experience. With [Project] Morpheus, now ordinary people can see what it is like to walk between the 140 feet between the World Trade Centers, over 1,300 feet up in the air. It’s one thing to imagine stepping onto that thin wire and quite another when that’s your entire frame of reference, as only VR can show. Can You Walk the Walk? gives a first-person look at something only one person has ever or will ever see, and it gives another layer of meaning to the motion picture experience that Robert Zemeckis is creating.”

“We’ve been thrilled with the reception Project Morpheus has received within the gaming community, and we look forward to giving a broader audience a chance to experience virtual reality from PlayStation,” said Phil Rosenberg, senior vice president, business development and publisher relations, SCEA. “VR is a powerful new medium, and Can You Walk the Walk? demonstrates the potential for this exciting technology outside of gaming.”

Sony Pictures commissioned the team at Culver City-based Create Advertising Group to develop and deliver the Can You Walk the Walk? VR experience. Can You Walk the Walk? will be on display this week at CineEurope in Barcelona and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest collaborations between Sony Pictures and SCEA.