Ready Player One

Since making his debut in Tree of Life, Tye Sheridan has rapidly ascended the list of the most talented young actors to watch. And if you thought his upcoming role as Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse was going to put him at the top of that list, you may have been right, as Sheridan has signed on for another potentially major blockbuster, landing the leading role in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One.

A few weeks ago, Disney and Lucasfilm changed the release date of Star Wars: Episode VIII to December 2017, partially to capitalize on the holiday season box office and partially to (reportedly) allow for some rewrites. Almost immediately after the announcement, James Cameron’s long-gestated and even longer-promised Avatar sequel moved away from that release date, citing yet another production delay and leaving Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One adaptation to fend for itself against Star Wars. And now it seems that Star Wars will mostly have December 2017 all to itself as Ready Player One has been pushed back to 2018.

When you need an actor to play a sinister-yet-oddly-charismatic-and-empathetic bad guy, you go to Ben Mendelsohn, and it appears Steven Spielberg is doing just that for Ready Player One. The star of Netflix’s Bloodline and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in talks to play the villain in Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s nostalgia-heavy sci-fi novel.

It looks like Steven Spielberg is really committed to directing the adaptation of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One — for better or worse. The iconic filmmaker is just now gearing up to head into production on the project, and while he doesn’t have much to offer at the moment, he has revealed a couple of things we should expect as well as at least one thing we shouldn’t.

Though Me and Earl and the Dying Girl may not have been the sleeper hit that Fox Searchlight hoped for this summer, it at least has propelled its lead actress to stardom. Fresh of that Sundance hit, Olivia Cooke has been cast as one of two leads in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming sci-fi adventure Ready Player One.

In addition to being on the shortlist for a leading role in Star Wars: Episode 8, rising star Olivia Cooke is also on a shortlist for another major upcoming film: Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s nostalgia-driven novel Ready Player One. Cooke is currently in contention for the role along with Elle Fanning and Mistress America newcomer Lola Kirke.

In 2008, Gene Wilder basically announced his retirement — at that point, he hadn’t acted since a 2003 guest appearance on Will and Grace, and his last film role was in NBC’s Alice in Wonderland TV movie back in 1999. Since then, Wilder has written some books, but has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. That may change if Steven Spielberg has his way, as the director is reportedly seeking to get Wilder out of retirement for an upcoming film project.

Here’s something that’s a bit surprising: Steven Spielberg is still signed on to direct Ready Player One, the film based on Ernest Cline’s novel of the same name. Spielberg often drops out of big budget projects (Robopocalypse has been placed on indefinite hold), but for whatever reason, the director remains attached to this particular project — and it’s not as if it’s going to be an easy one to pull off.

Well, this was unexpected. After a few years of development, Warner Bros. is officially moving forward with a big screen adaptation of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and they’re doing so with the director most likely to break the brains of the novel’s biggest fans: Steven Spielberg. Yes, Spielberg is going to direct a science fiction story powered by raw ‘80s nostalgia for the same studio where he produced Gremlins and The Goonies.

Over the last couple of days, rumors have been swirling that the folks at Warner Bros. have offered Christopher Nolan the director’s chair for the adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel ‘Ready Player One.’ While it seems pretty unlikely that Nolan would take the job, a few more names have emerged, also reportedly on WB’s director shortlist: Robert Zemeckis, Edgar Wright (of course), Peter Jackson, and Matthew Vaughn.