Award-winning XR studio New Canvas has partnered with Australian production house Jacaranda Productions on “Coltrane,” a five-part VR noir thriller that blurs the line between viewer and protagonist.
The immersive series, helmed by Jacaranda co-founders Diana Glenn and Sarah Goodes, places audiences inside the mind of disgraced ex-SFPD detective Veronica Coltrane, now working as a private investigator who becomes entangled in a deadly conspiracy after a surveillance job goes wrong.
In an innovative narrative approach, AACTA Award-winning actor Glenn (“Carla Cametti PD,” “The Slap”) will both star as Coltrane and share the role with viewers, who experience the story through the character’s perspective in a first-person immersive format.
“‘Coltrane’ is a high-stakes character study embedded as a crime thriller,” Glenn said. “It’s a layered and emotionally rich journey, and I’m thrilled to invite audiences inside Veronica’s brilliant and complicated mind and life, where they’ll navigate uncertainty, adventure, and truth right alongside her.”
Set in 2011 Hong Kong, the series unfolds through branching narratives where memory proves unreliable and viewer choices impact the outcome. The story explores themes of surveillance, betrayal and moral ambiguity against a backdrop of cultural and societal change.
Goodes, an award-winning theater director known for “The Children,” “Julia” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” brings her live-stage sensibility to the immersive format.
“We’re interested in how immersive storytelling can bridge the gap between our biological and technological selves,” Goodes said. “This is a world where your emotional responses shape the narrative.”
The series combines live-action performance with photorealistic, real-time interactivity powered by game engine technology. Viewers navigate surveillance operations and morally complex interrogations while experiencing how personal trauma, bias and memory distort perception of truth.
Nathan Anderson, executive producer at New Canvas, said: “We think that live theatre has so much to offer the immersive narrative format and will be critical to helping shape sophisticated stories that can capture mainstream audiences.”
The project builds on New Canvas’s “VR Noir,” the critically acclaimed cinematic VR pilot originally released in 2016 as part of Vivid Sydney’s official program. Produced by Anderson during his tenure at Start Beyond, “VR Noir” was later acquired as part of the New Canvas IP portfolio when the studio spun out in 2020.
“‘Coltrane’ builds on the foundation we laid with ‘VR Noir,’ but this time we’re going deeper — emotionally, psychologically, and interactively,” Anderson said.
The original “VR Noir” had over 500,000 downloads on Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard, with UploadVR praising it as “a great example of how virtual reality will change television.”
Glenn, who also produced “Spreadsheet” and “Amplified,” said: “I’m interested in trying to create as much intimacy between the player/user and character so that the experience becomes deeply personal, engaged, and potentially transformative.”
She added: “For me, the reasons why we make art are to make people feel, to bring connection, and to encourage the audience to witness and experience different perspectives. With this new technology, we have the potential to do that on an even deeper level.”
A first-look teaser and promotional stills are set for release in 2025. New Canvas is in early discussions with technology partners and will finalize target platform and distribution models as the project moves into production.
New Canvas, based in Byron Bay, New South Wales, is an award-winning XR studio focused on socially relevant storytelling for breakthrough platforms. The company is a founding member of the Byron Bay XR Collective.
Jacaranda Productions develops original content across theater, screen, online and immersive entertainment, operating as both a production company and incubator for emerging stories and talent.
Leave a Reply