So Spielberg is attached to direct Ready Player One, and while he's got his great qualities, he's seriously the last major director I'd have named to make the first major motion picture about the metaverse. (Chris Nolan not available?) It's certainly a challenge:
With this news, a question arises about how they will bring a key element of the book’s virtual world to life for the big screen. After all, it seems imperative for the audience to feel like they were dropped into the middle of a video game.
At first I was skeptical Spielberg could pull that off. And then I thought about this other movie scene he did (thoughtfully annotated by an analyst):
Minority Report came out in 2002, and this scene is still referenced by futurists now -- the first mass market glimpse at gesture interfaces and other UIs we now take for granted. The mass market is still having a hard time wrapping its head around VR, so it's going to take a scene as potent as this to help them understand.
In any case, this is nice:
Guess what? Steven Spielberg is going to direct Ready Player One! And I'm going to have a massive coronary. http://t.co/IWILQQTV3a
— Ernie Cline (@erniecline) March 25, 2015
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The Minority Report was not very faithful to the book. I don't think Spielberg will allow something like a book interfere with his own artistic vision. The book rights are just for the title and a few plot elements.
Posted by: Amanda Dallin | Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 06:32 PM
Due to the esoteric structure the book is built upon, Spielberg MUST follow the book closely. And I think he will.
However will he poor extra sappiness all over it? Will he cast extra cutesy, tootsy kids for the leads? Will he never fail to go for cheap laughs, tears etc? You betcha!
Posted by: melponeme_k | Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 07:27 PM
In a way the book was rather childish in parts so he would be perfect.
Posted by: Connie Arida | Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 09:01 PM
For all answers to your questions just look at Japanese anime: LOG HORIZON plays inside a video game:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_Horizon
Oh, and what about that terrible movie TRON?
Posted by: Orca Flotta | Wednesday, March 25, 2015 at 11:41 PM
First major? I'm a huge fan of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267287/. Avalon is probably the best movie made on this subject so far and a personal favorite of mine. Then of course we've got 'eXistenZ' by David Cronenberg, another great movie that tackles virtual reality. Finally there's the bad, such as Lawnmower Man.
There was a Reddit post a couple years ago asking which book would you like to see made into a movie, and I replied RP1. Something was mentioned that it would be difficult because of all the rights required. I wonder how this will be handled. Will they get permission to use the D&D brand for example?
Posted by: Cube Republic | Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 04:49 AM
Cronenberg's an A list director and I liked eXistenZ myself, but it was an indie Canadian movie. In film industry jargon, "major" is A list talent directly backed by one of the big Hollywood studios (Warners in this case). Spielberg is AAA at this point, he's been around so long and so successfully.
Posted by: Wagner James Au | Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 09:54 AM
The University of Bristol were developing a screen like that not long back. Not sure what happened to it.
Is Snow Crash still in the works?
I'm sure the Spielberg film will look great, whether it does the novel justice is another matter but as Amanda points out, Philip K Dick stories on the screen can be very different to the film, although they can also gain fans galore despite those differences.
Posted by: Ciaran Laval | Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 11:01 AM
Just please don't cast Tom Cruise in it for any part. Actually don't cast Tom Cruise in anything, ever.
Posted by: Amanda Dallin | Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 06:17 PM
Going to be hard to license all the 20th Century properties used in Oasis for Cline's novel.
But it will be fun to see the mash-up if this project ever really happens.
Posted by: Iggy | Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 06:42 PM
Spielberg is a superb cinematic craftsman who sometimes rises to the level of artist. I don't mean that as an insult; it puts him a notch higher than nearly all other mainstream directors.
And to be honest, as much as I dearly love the book, it really doesn't call for an artist. Artistic cinema is too challenging for a mass audience. It's too challenging for me, most days; who wants to work that hard as a viewer?
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Friday, March 27, 2015 at 04:46 AM
This movie will kick huge amounts of ass.
Posted by: Seymore Steamweaver | Friday, March 27, 2015 at 01:45 PM