Spielberg to Direct 'Ready Player One' Film Adaptation
East Hampton resident Steven Spielberg will direct the film adaptation of Ready Player One, a sci-fi novel by Ernest Cline.
The film is expected to be Spielberg’s next project following The BFG, based on the novel by Roald Dahl. Ready Player One is produced by Warner Bros. and is the studio’s first collaboration with Spielberg in 14 years.
Ready Player One is about a society that has become reliant on OASIS, a virtual world that nearly everyone uses for everything from entertainment to education to commerce. When the creator of OASIS dies, he leaves his entire fortune, including ownership of the entire program, to the first person to solve a mysterious puzzle. Several years later, nobody’s even come close to solving it—until a young man uncovers a secret that could lead to the answer.
The novel relies heavily on ’80s nostalgia and is full of references to arcade games, television shows and more. Warner Bros. has experience with juggling multiple licensed properties at once; The Lego Movie featured several characters that Warner Bros. didn’t own.
Ready Player One has no release date but is expected to begin production when Spielberg wraps The BFG, according to Deadline.