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tell a story that will fit a reasonable length
was, in itself, a challenge,” said Penn.
“The whole time I was writing the book I
assumed there wouldn’t be a movie,” adds
Cline. “I wanted to mash up everything in
pop culture and pay tribute to the pop culture
that I love. Really, the only two guys that
could make this movie work were Steven
and Zak.”
A self-described geek, Cline's book
is a veritable love letter to 1980s pop
culture and loaded with references to the
films and characters of the era – one that
Spielberg of course was heavily involved
in. Consequently, the director held back on
including too many of his films in Ready
Player One
.
“I didn’t want to be vilified for some kind
of grand act of vanity, so I had to leave a lot
of myself out or defer to another director,”
he said.
Expect to see pop culture greats likes of
Back to the Future
,
Akira
,
Freddy Krueger
,
Tron
,
The Iron Giant
, and many more within
the film’s OASIS.
Cline’s novel is given to employees of
companies like Oculus VR and HTC Vibe to
inspire them and show them the potential of
virtual reality, and the writer believes that the
film will expose more people to the concept
of the technology.
“Last Christmas was the first Christmas
where you could actually buy virtual reality
headsets that were commercially available. I
think [the film is] going to change the speed
with which virtual reality will be adopted by
civilization. That’s the power of movies.”
Ready Player One
is in cinemas
on 29 March 2018.
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Steven Spielberg’s VR adventure is both a celebration of
1980s pop culture and a cautionary tale about crossing
the line between the real world and the virtual one.
E
rnest Cline’s novel
Ready Player One
is considered the Holy Grail of Young
Adult fiction. Set in a dystopian future
of 2044, teenager Wade Watts escapes the
real world for a virtual utopia called OASIS,
where its pop culture-obsessed creator
has hidden an Easter Egg that will reward
whoever finds it with wealth and power.
“I put down the book and I said, ‘you’re
going to need a younger director’,” said
Spielberg at the Warner Bros. Comic-Con
panel. “I had no idea at first how I was going
to do it as a filmmaker, but [Ernest] was the
handbook for doing that.
“The thing that made me want to tell the
story, more than anything else, was
the kind of world
that 2044 gives to
people, which is
so dystopian,” he
continued. “People
are leaving the
country and all of a
sudden virtual reality
gives you a choice,
another world you
can exist in and you
can do anything in that
world that you can
possibly imagine.
“There are optic
suits that aren’t on the
market yet that give
you a kind of feedback
that approximates touch and sexuality. By
the third act of the movie, that interaction
between real life and virtual life is almost
non-existent, and that is what made me
jump into this movie.”
The creation of the film’s virtual world
required two years
of preparation, and
co-screenwriter Zak Penn
was also challenged in
adapting the book to the
screen, in collaboration
with the author.
“It’s definitely the
most complex movie
I’ve ever worked on,
and I think Steven
might agree with
me. There’s so much
material in that book
that you can use.
Just to find a way to
winnow it down and
I put down the book and I
said, ‘you’re going to need
a younger director'
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