Get ready to press start, gunters! There’s finally some movement on the film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. Big movement. Deadline reports none other than Steven Spielberg is on board to direct Ready Player One. Given that a big chunk of the novel focuses on the wondrous decade that was the 1980s, Spielberg seems like a perfect fit. Some of his films are even referenced in the book.
Warner Bros. hasn’t stated whether the screenplay is completed, but Zak Penn worked on the latest version (Cline and Eric Eason wrote initial drafts with Penn taking over). Ready Player One takes place in 2044 and transports us to both a bleak and depressing real world and a shiny virtual world known as the OASIS. The OASIS can basically be whatever you want it to be, and many citizens escape into it. Kind of like Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids.
The story follows a young man named Wade Watts. He is one of the said people who escapes into the OASIS, but he and others — known as gunters — are there for more than pleasure or work. They’re hunting the Easter egg to top all Easter eggs left by the OASIS’s creator, James Halliday, which leads to a pop culture-fueled scavenger hunt like no other. Fittingly, the pages of Ready Player One are loaded with imagery and references to ’80s pop culture. Between creating the OASIS and getting rights to the dozens of movies and video games that are integral parts of the Easter egg hunt, Warner Bros. and Spielberg have their work cut out for them.
If this news makes you feel like you want to read Ready Player One again, we happen to be discussing it for Nerdist Book Club right now and you have time to catch up. Go read the first post!
[HT: Deadline]
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OMG! I am so happy and excited for this. Finally! I have the book on audible and I have listened to it over ten times and never get bored. Best novel EVER! Totally Psyched for this movie. Now gimme! 😀
Depending on how in-depth they want to go, they could make a trilogy out of it. Another series of movies would be annoying, but with all of the source material’s imagery just sitting there on that page, stretching it into at least into a two part flick would seem like a smart thing to do.
Have read it and now have the audio book which I listen to at least once a month. If the is done just right we are in for a treat
“The OASIS can basically be whatever you want it to be, and many citizens escape into it. Kind of like Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids.”
This is going to be fantastic. And don’t forget, the book describes every single virtual world and video game that is out there as having become part of the OASIS. So it INCLUDES Second Life AND World of Warcraft, and hundreds of other games, among its thousands of planets.
Yes!!
2044 too close, it’s dated before it comes out, 2144 at least.
This is such amazing news. I hope this goes through, cause I can’t WAIT to see what they’d do to this story on the big screen!
Next up, we just need the Samurai Jack movie to be made….
OMG OMG OMG OMG! This couldn’t be any more perfect. Only Spielberg can make the OASIS in my head come to life on the big screen.
Fucking Finally .