Cabiria Experience Revives Italian Silent Film Epic with VR and AI

Rai Cinema, in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, Spazio Koch, and Cubia, is developing Cabiria Experience, an immersive project to revitalize the 1914 silent film Cabiria directed by Giovanni Pastrone. The project uses virtual reality, artificial intelligence, the Metaverse, and Unreal Engine by Epic Games to create a 360-degree immersive environment from restored frames. Carlo Rodomonti, Head of Strategic and Digital Marketing at Rai Cinema, stated that AI plays a key role but does not replace human work, and a voiceover will guide viewers through the silent film. Cabiria Experience includes an immersive short film and a linear short film covering the first two chapters (L’eruzione dell’Etna and Il sacrificio e il salvataggio), plus a gaming experience where users embody the protagonist Maciste in the Metaverse on The Nemesis platform. The project will be fully presented at the 76th Prix Italia in Turin from October 1–4, 2024. The original film, with literary captions by Gabriele D’Annunzio, premiered at the Teatro Regio during the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and screened at Cannes in 2006 with Martin Scorsese present.