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Jon Hamm Is Being Turned Into a Hologram for the Sundance Film Festival

By Jason Serafino

Passage Pictures
Passage Pictures / Passage Pictures
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With virtual and augmented reality being introduced across television, sports, and video games, it’s only natural that the technology would be implemented for movies as well. As part of the marketing campaign for the upcoming sci-fi film Marjorie Prime, actor Jon Hamm will be recreated as a hologram at this month's Sundance Film Festival. The hologram—a.k.a. #Holohamm—will debut at the after-party for the film’s festival premiere on January 23.

The hologram was created by 8i, a technology start-up that boasts, "Our proprietary technology transforms video from an array of cameras into a photo-realistic 3D hologram of a human that can be viewed from any angle, on any device for virtual, augmented or mixed reality." The hologram is based on Hamm’s character from the movie, Walter Prime, who is also a hologram. Attendees will watch a demonstration of the hologram Hamm, who exists as a "VR experience and in mixed reality on a mobile device."

"It is amazing to experience the future in the here and now," Marjorie Prime producer Uri Singer said in a press release. "When we first started working on the movie, the script dictated that the holograms would be portrayed as a futuristic reality. Making an actual hologram, not only on film but one that can be experienced with VR/AR, attests to how present the future has become."

Marjorie Prime is directed by Michael Almereyda and also stars Geena Davis, Lois Smith, and Tim Robbins. The movie is based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play of the same name. Here’s how Passage Pictures describes the film:

“'Marjorie Prime' follows 86-year-old Marjorie (Lois Smith) who spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband, Walter (Hamm). With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie’s 'Prime' relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. As their interactions deepen, the family begins to develop ever diverging recounts of their lives, drawn into the chance to reconstruct the often painful past.”