Screen Gems, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment that finances and produces moderately-budgeted niche films, announced today that it has partnered with Snapchat to develop the first sponsored interactive 3D Lens. The promotional effort will launch on Dec. 29 ahead of the release of Underworld: Blood Wars — the latest installment in the vampire-themed, Kate Beckinsale-starring action horror franchise.
The Underworld: Blood Wars 3D Lens will use smartphones’ gyroscopes — which help to determine a device’s orientation — to build an immersive Underworld-themed environment with a background that adapts to Snapchatters’ movements as they turn their phones. This differs from a standard overlay that traditional Snapchat lenses provide, according to Screen Gems. And once inside the Underworld-themed, 360-degree environment, users can pan from side to side to explore various worlds from the movie, transforming the user into a vampire.
Before its official release date, fans will be able to get an advance look at the Lens by Snapping codes that will appear on social media and on TV and print advertising materials in coming weeks. Underworld: Blood Wars arrives in theaters nationwide next Jan. 6.
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Snapchat has collaborated with movie studios to create innovative promotional Lenses in the past. For instance, 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: Apocalypse film overtook all of the platform’s lenses for 24 hours last May, while Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters created the first Lens to utilize both front and back-facing mobile cameras in July.
