L to R: John Hamilton, Sébastien Gros and Robert Boulos.

John Hamilton, former co-president of Seville Pictures and eOne, is now taking on virtual reality. Hamilton has launched Unlimited, a VR production company based in Montreal, with Sébastien Gros, VP technology, and Robert Boulos, VP operations. 

The company has recently started work on the live-action interactive VR film, Trinity. The 15- to 20-minute sci-fi film is produced in partnership with the Canada Media Fund, which has invested $900,000 in the project, and Rex Media Capital. In Trinity, the audience plays the lead character who wakes up find himself/herself in a future dystopian reality, not knowing who or where he is. The film follows the lead character as he/she embarks on a mission to retrieve his/her memories.

Production is currently underway in Montreal, though principal photography has yet to begin. The company has started doing preliminary interactivity design, pre-visualization, production design and art direction for the film. Once all of the interactive components of the story are certain to work, they will then shoot the live-action elements.

Hamilton said Unlimited hopes to release Trinity in time for Christmas of this year.

By then, he said, VR headsets should be in the hands – or on the heads – of early adopters, eager for quality VR experiences.

“The idea was to have a really high-end product into the market at a time when everybody who is going to be buying these goggles is going to be looking for content. In that sense our timing is going to be really fantastic,” Hamilton told Playback Daily.

An Unlimited press release cites a Fortune article which predicts that more than 12.2 million VR headsets will be sold by then end of 2016.

As for who will be consuming VR content, Hamilton says that’s an interesting question in the VR community right now. “Everyone who is involved in VR is really debating who that first audience is going to be. I think one of the biggest audiences will actually be gamers, who are looking for a more in-depth experience in terms of story,” he said. He adds video game players will also most likely be the first to purchase high-end VR headsets.

While he anticipates gamers will be the first “natural” market for VR content, including Trinity, he adds the everyday film consumer will also be “a huge market.”

Hamilton hopes Trinity will serve as Unlimited’s flagship film and the company will be able to create at least four or five more 15- to 20-minute (depending on the choices the audience/main character makes) installments of the series.

The project was developed by Hamilton, who serves as an executive producer, along with Boulos. David Reckziegel, who co-founded Seville with Hamilton and who is now founder and managing partner of Rex Media Capital, will also executive produce. Gros is director of photography and lead stereographer, and Claude Paré (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Age of Adaline) is production designer. The director of the project has yet to be announced.

Trinity, along with the VR headsets needed to watch it, will be available for purchase on various online stores, including Google Play, Samsung and Microsoft.