{"id":1974356,"date":"2025-08-22T13:12:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T13:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1974356"},"modified":"2025-08-22T13:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T13:12:02","slug":"jeffrey-katzenberg-is-betting-on-drones-for-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jeffrey-katzenberg-is-betting-on-drones-for-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Katzenberg Is Betting on Drones for Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three years ago, Jeffrey Katzenberg attended Burning Man, the cultural festival held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. \u201cI\u2019m an undercover secret \u2018burner,\u2019\u201d he told TheWrap. Surrounding him were a myriad of art installations, but it wasn\u2019t until the entertainment mogul looked up that he saw something that held his attention.<\/p>\n

In the night sky was an array of drones coordinated and lit up in a way that it formed a giant eye. \u201cIt completely blew me away,\u201d Katzenberg said.<\/p>\n

The dazzling display led to a conversation with Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon Musk and founder of drone company Nova Sky Stories, and the beginning of a collaboration that resulted in Friday\u2019s announcement that Katzenberg would join the company as a strategic advisor. Katzenberg\u2019s investment firm, WndrCo, has also invested in the company. <\/p>\n

The Nova Sky Stories drones in action above a concert. (Nova Sky Stories)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t create the next family-branded media entertainment company,\u201d Katzenberg said. \u201cYou sort of have to dream a little bit with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investment comes as drone shows are having a moment. Social feeds are filled with videos of sophisticated images \u201cdrawn\u201d by thousands of drones flying in unison, creating characters, logos and other moving images set to music. They\u2019re increasingly becoming fixtures at concerts and outdoor sporting events, or seen as safer alternatives to fireworks. <\/p>\n

But like fireworks, the novelty of drone shows can get old pretty quickly. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Nova Sky wants to set itself apart \u2014 through long-form storytelling. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually telling stories; we\u2019re engaging audiences just like a movie,\u201d Kimbal Musk told TheWrap. \u201cIt\u2019s a new canvas for family entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter Katzenberg, co-founder of Dreamworks. WndrCo\u2019s investment will help Nova Sky grow its creative studio with additional animators and storytellers. The company said it will debut its first co-developed Sky Story with Katzenberg in 2026.<\/p>\n

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Investing in new formats<\/h2>\n

Katzenberg compared his experience with Nova Sky\u2019s drone to the moment he first saw the animated short, \u201cLuxo Jr.\u201d The lamp, now the iconic mascot for Pixar, was the last \u201clight bulb\u201d moment for the executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a new technology; it\u2019s actually a new art form,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He sees the same potential with drones. \u201cThe ability to be engaging and interactive and surround the audience and engage them is unique,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t do that with any other form of technology that I\u2019m aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(from
Po (Jack Black) and Zhen (Awkwafina) in \u201cKung Fu Panda 4\u201d (Universal\/DreamWorks)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Katzenberg has a history of embracing new mediums. After turning around Walt Disney\u2019s animation unit, he spearheaded the deal to get Pixar to produce \u201cToy Story\u201d and took that computer-generated animation expertise over to DreamWorks, which produced hits like \u201cKung Fu Panda\u201d and \u201cShrek.\u201d<\/p>\n

His bets haven\u2019t all paid off. Katzenberg was also a champion of the 3D format, and the short-form video platform Quibi, a spectacular miss as YouTube began to supplant traditional TV.<\/p>\n

Nova Sky\u2019s growth<\/h2>\n

Nova Sky already offers a 90-minute show themed around Antonio Vivaldi\u2019s \u201cThe Four Seasons,\u201d and Musk talked about the momentum that the company has enjoyed. It has dedicated fleets in the U.S., E.U. and Australia, with plans to launch another fleet in the Middle East. <\/p>\n

The company sold 6,000 tickets for these dedicated drone shows in 2024. This year, it\u2019s on track to sell half a million tickets, he said. <\/p>\n

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Kimbal Musk overseeing the drone operation (Nova Sky Stories)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Musk noted that while other drone companies use \u201coff-the-shelf\u201d drones and repurpose them for light shows, Nova Sky uses purpose-built ones that use proprietary and patented technology, which he acquired from Intel. <\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Musk teased more interactive elements, such as a single drone that can land on an audience member\u2019s hand, before heading up and rejoining the fleet to create a massive dragon that can breathe fire (a capability that it hasn\u2019t yet put to use). <\/p>\n

But all those features won\u2019t matter unless there\u2019s a strong narrative to engage the audience, something Katzenberg has vowed to help create. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited to bring his creative vision to Nova,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thewrap.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, Jeffrey Katzenberg attended Burning Man, the cultural festival held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. \u201cI\u2019m an undercover secret \u2018burner,\u2019\u201d he told TheWrap. Surrounding him were a myriad of art installations, but it wasn\u2019t until the entertainment mogul looked up that he saw something that held his attention. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1974357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[352252,352261,352253,352262,342948],"class_list":["post-1974356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-drones","tag-freemium","tag-jeffrey-katzenberg","tag-wndrco","tag-wrappro"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Jeffrey-Katzenberg-Is-Betting-on-Drones-for-Entertainment.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1974357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}