Vū Technologies played a key role in the production of the upcoming movie Sympathy for the Devil, starring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman.

The film, introduced during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is a psychological thriller produced by Hammerstone Studios, Signature, and Capstone, and directed by Yuval Adler.

Approximately half of the film was shot at the Vū Vegas 40,000 sq. ft. virtual production studio, giving the production team next-generation content rendering capabilities by shooting photo-realistic virtual environments in the LED studio instead of having to travel on location, saving both substantial costs and time.

“This studio is gorgeous. It’s state-of-the-art,” Cage said of the Vū Las Vegas studio.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this film without this amazing LED setup. In this short of time and with this budget,” added Adler.

Vū’s capabilities allowed for production to capture higher-quality and more dynamic footage at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional, on-location shooting. In addition, Tim Moore, CEO of Vū, and Jason Soto, Vū’s general manager of the Las Vegas studio, are two of the film’s executive producers.

“Typically a feature film shoots an average of three to five pages of script per day when filming on location, however when shooting in virtual production, we’ve seen several productions triple that output at Vū. This makes a huge difference for the production timeline and budget,” said Moore. “We were thrilled to host such a talented cast and crew for what will be a very captivating and entertaining film!”

Written by Luke Paradise, Sympathy for the Devil follows The Driver, played by Kinnaman, as he finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse after being forced to drive a mysterious man known as The Passenger, played by Cage. That sets things up for a white-knuckle ride.

“Coming in here is very turnkey. It gets the actors into a position where they don’t have to worry too much about the environment,” said producer Allan Ungar of the Vū Vegas campus. “They can come into this environment…it feels safe and quiet and they can do what they need to do without interference. It’s been incredible.”

Vū and Hammerstone worked with several key partners in producing Sympathy for the Devil, including the Nevada Film Office. According to the company, Sony‘s Venice II was the camera of choice for shooting the film, allowing for a superior image and consistency for blending virtual locations with their physical counterparts, and Aputure lighting was used throughout the film to provide advanced special effects lighting on-location and in-studio.