Steven Spielberg is to direct an adaptation of the cult virtual reality novel Ready Player One, according to Deadline.
Ernie Cline’s 2011 science fiction tale centres on a teenager, Wade Watts, from the ghettos of 2044 Oklahoma who spends his time enveloped in an online utopia known as OASIS. Watts’ main desire, like millions of others, is to uncover a mysterious “Easter Egg” which the game’s late founder has stipulated will deliver his entire fortune into the virtual mitts of the player who uncovers it.
Spielberg, who helped define the science fiction genre for the blockbuster era with 70s and 80s films such as Close Encounters and ET, is expected to shoot Ready Player One after his forthcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. The movie will be his first entry into futuristic territory since 2005’s War of the Worlds (not counting 2008’s poorly-received Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.) Zak Penn, who co-wrote critically-reviled 2006 superhero sequel X-Men: The Last Stand, will oversee the screenplay.
The new film also marks Spielberg’s first project at Warner Bros since 2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, the science fiction tale he inherited from the late Stanley Kubrick.
“We are thrilled to welcome Steven back to Warner Bros,” said studio president Greg Silverman. “We had an historic series of collaborations in the 80s and 90s and have wanted to bring him back for years. As for Ready Player One, we have always felt that Steven was the dream director for this project.”
While the book was published in 2011, the studio bought the rights in 2010 after a heated auction.
