The Mill and HBO create Ground-Breaking Social VR Event ‘Lovecraft Country: Sanctum’

To celebrate the highly anticipated new series Lovecraft Country, we teamed up with HBO to create Lovecraft Country: Sanctum, a series of first-of-their-kind virtual reality events transporting guests into a world inspired by the show. The first event ‘Garden of Eden’ premiered on Thursday 3rd September.

Guests will experience voiceover performances by series’ Jonathan Majors, Courtney B. Vance and Michael Kenneth Williams; afrofuturist art installations by David Alabo, Devan Shimoyama and Adeyemi Adegbesan; an immersive theatrical performance inspired by the words of James Baldwin, adapted by Lovecraft Country writer Shannon Houston, and performed by star Jurnee Smollett; and an exclusive VR concert given by a soon to be announced artist.

100 select influential voices will experience the three events via the Oculus Quest headset. The events will be simultaneously run on the social VR platform VRChat, which allows guests to talk and interact with each other in real time within the environment, and streamed to the world via YouTube Live. Viewers on the YouTube Live stream will be able to interact in real-time, solving riddles to trigger spells that directly impact the experience.

Sanctum was developed by our team of artists, coders and strategists developed the experience during global lockdown, in close collaboration with HBO’s marketing team.

“We were very inspired by the deeply layered and dynamic world Misha Green has brought to life in Lovecraft Country and wanted to create a digital experience for fans that is just as innovative as the series itself,” said Dana Flax, Vice President, Program Marketing at HBO. “We’re so thrilled to be partnering with The Mill on creating a virtual reality ‘secret society’ in Sanctum. So much of Lovecraft Country is rooted in the idea of travel as a catalyst for self-discovery. Sanctum provides a way for fans to come together virtually and safely in a unique new place and experience incredible performances that further explore themes and ideas from the show. These virtual events also give us the special opportunity of spotlighting the work of Black artists in celebration of this very important series.”

“We created Sanctum as a space to expand the possibilities of what the future of theatre, games, art installations, concerts, and live events can be,” said Rama Allen, Executive Creative Director at The Mill and lead creative on the Sanctum experience. “It is an alternate universe, built for Social VR, that tests, and exceeds, the boundaries of what we believe possible. We sought to create a space in partnership with Black artists and voices that centers on the Black experience. We chose Social VR because it is the most transportive medium to lift us from the isolation of quarantine, to coexist in a rarefied location. This technology can erase geography to bring us together.”

You can view Sanctum via YouTube Live during the following dates and times this Fall:

Event #1: Garden of Eden (Recording)

Thursday, September 3

10:00 PM ET/ 7:00 PM PT

Event #2: An American Dream

Thursday, September 24

10:00 PM ET/ 7:00 PM PT

Event #3: Music of the Cosmos

Monday, October 19

10:00 PM ET/ 7:00 PM PT

Credits | The Mill:

Executive Creative Director: Rama Allen

Executive Producer: Desi Gonzalez

Experience Director: Aline Ridolfi

Design Director: Sally Reynolds

Technical Director: Kevin Young

Senior Producer: Hayley Underwood Norton

Strategist: Min Wei Lee