If you’re wondering how Steven Spielberg will bring the dystopian, VR-heavy world of Ready Player One to life, you can get your first real glimpse in the..
If you’ re wondering how Steven Spielberg will bring the dystopian, VR-heavy world of Ready Player One to life, you can get your first real glimpse in the trailer (technically, a teaser for San Diego Comic Con) above.
The film is based on Ernest Cline’s novel — a book that’s been recommend to me many times as one of the best depictions of virtual reality and gaming in fiction. (Sorry, I still haven’ t read it!)
One of the story’s main elements is a virtual world called OASIS. What we see of OASIS in the trailer might not feel terribly visually distinctive, but it certainly looks fun and flashy, throwing together a hodgepodge of pop culture references.
I also laughed a couple of times at the marketing-speak, which is overhyped even by the standards of movie trailers. Spielberg isn’ t just an award-winning director, he’s a “cinematic game-changer.” Ready Player One isn’ t just a popular book, it’s a “holy grail of pop culture.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Spielberg discussed the film at Comic Con, where he described it as “the most amazing flash-forward and flashback at the same time about a decade I was very involved in, the’ 80s, and a flash-forward to a future that is awaiting all of us, whether we like it or not.”
Anyway, despite my reservations, I’ m feeling hopeful about this. It’s Spielberg, you know? And aside from The Matrix, the bar for VR-in-film is pretty low.
Ready Player One stars Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts, with a script by Cline and Zak Penn. It’s scheduled to open on March 30,2018.
