Go Interstellar with the Oculus Rift for launch of Matthew McConaughey's new film

If you have ever dreamed of travelling in space, now you can fulfil your ambition — at a London cinema.

Tomorrow, film fans will have the chance to experience the life of an astronaut in a virtual reality rendering of the spaceship from Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.

Oculus Rift technology, which has been developed in California with Kickstarter funding, creates a zero gravity three-dimensional simulation of moving through the spacecraft and journeying past planets into space.

Spokesman Vincent Chan said developers hope the technology will transform the next generation of games, and believe one day whole films could be viewed using it.

For now, however, fans will have to content themselves with a three-minute taster. The experience will be offered for free at the BFI Imax in London tomorrow.

Viewers are strapped into a chair tilted at an angle to amplify the sensation of floating. They wear a special mask to view the 3D rendering of the craft in what is being hailed as “an incredibly immersive experience”.

Batman director Nolan said: “I was impressed with how the experience is able to put you in the cockpit of Interstellar’s spaceship, the Endurance. It was just like being back on set.”

The exhibit will be open from 11am to 9pm. Viewers can pre-book some slots by emailing interstellar@premiercomms.com. The MCM Comic Con fair at the Excel Centre this weekend will have another booth. Interstellar is released on November 7.

Today I fulfilled a life-long ambition and became an astronaut. Well, almost, writes Lizzie Edmonds. Although I was sitting in a comfortable chair while wearing goggles and headphones in Waterloo at 8am, the technology made the experience pretty realistic.

I walked along one of the craft’s walkways before being told I was about to go into zero gravity. With a jolt (and a small squeal on my part) I floated around — avoiding torches and notebooks as they soared towards me.

INTERSTELLAR is showing at cinemas and on IMAX from November 7