He dreamed up his novel about a teenage games fanatic while working for internet companies in the 90s. Cline on his real-life geek-to-riches story – and what it was really like working with Steven Spielberg
It took Ernest Cline 10 years to write Ready Player One. There were times he thought he would never finish the manuscript, let alone publish it. But the novel, mostly set in a global online pleasure world called Oasis, went on to become a bestseller and was translated into more than 20 languages. Now a film adaptation by Steven Spielberg is in cinemas – a real-life geek-to-riches drama so reflective of the book’s plot it seems almost unfeasible.
The sci-fi story’s setup is simple. Teen protagonist Wade Watts is a games fanatic living in a slum town outside Oklahoma City, but spending most of his time in the virtual world. The death of James Halliday, the eccentric creator of Oasis, triggers a treasure hunt that revolves around Halliday’s main obsession: 1980s pop culture. Whoever solves a series of puzzles within the game becomes its new billionaire CEO. Wade enters the hunt, kicking into gear a breathless nerd empowerment fantasy.
“Wade is the embodiment of me as a teenager,” Cline admits. “The structure of Ready Player One was a fun way for me to take all of the useless movie and video-game trivia you amass if you’re a geek and somehow make it valuable – the key to a vast fortune, which it has proven to be for me.”
Cline had been working in IT since the mid-1990s, doing tech support at emerging internet firms like CompuServe, where he realised how the internet was about to change the world. In his spare time, he was playing video games – a lot of video games. As a teenager in Austin, Texas, in the early 80s, he had witnessed the dawn of the coin-op era, feeding quarters into Pac-Man, Joust and Robotron machines. As an adult, seeing his work colleagues ensconced in online multiplayer games such as Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, he began imagining what might happen when gaming, the internet and virtual reality converged.
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At first he dabbled in screenwriting. “The VCR landed in my teenage years, and opened up the whole world of film to me,” he says. “It turned me into an uber cinephile, and I watched all my favourite movies over and over again. I felt very much like Wade – my heroes were George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Milius, John Hughes. I would order copies of their screenplays and study them.”
In the early 2000s, Cline got a film script made, but the movie – Fanboys, about a bunch of kids trying to access Skywalker Ranch to see an early cut of The Phantom Menace – was disjointed and awkward. “It took years for the movie to get made, and my screenplay got heavily altered,” he says, recalling battles with producers about changing the plot and characters. “It was all very dispiriting. But it prompted me to finish the novel, because I wanted to see what would happen when I had total control over the end product, as opposed to movies where you have almost no control over anything.”
Ready Player One channels 80s geek obsessions into a text that reflects the language of emerging internet culture. The book has often been criticised for its lack of characterisation and dramatic tension: the three trials that make up the backbone of the plot are hastily reported, with constant pop culture references substituting for the character’s internal life. But this may be part of its appeal. The novel reads and functions like a video game walkthrough guide, or a forum post about someone’s favourite gaming moments; it is commentary rather than a narrative. It’s a novel for people who grew up parsing pop culture through the lens of news group fave lists and flame wars.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fanboy … Ernest Cline, right, with director Steven Spielberg in Los Angeles. Photograph: Eric Charbonneau/Rex/Shutterstock
But that slightly distanced approach was never going to work for a movie – and neither were the original puzzle tasks. In the book, the competitors for Halliday’s prize have to play specific video games to completion and re-enact vast tracts of cult films such as WarGames and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s fun on the page, but no one wants to watch Tye Sheridan spend six hours getting a high score on Pac-Man.
Cline worked with co-screenwriter Zak Penn and with Spielberg to create a modified set of trials for the film, including a new opener: an astonishingly vivid, high-speed car race through a virtual city. The second trial still involves Wade visiting an Oasis-based reproduction of a classic movie, but it’s not WarGames. Instead, he has to navigate through a terrifying virtual version of The Shining’s Overlook hotel, complete with spooky twins and an elevator full of blood. “WarGames didn’t seem quite right because, although it’s a great film, it’s not that visually arresting. We wanted a movie with a unique and familiar environment,” says Cline. “We made a list of possibilities, and when Steven saw The Shining [on it] he lit up. That was one of the most fun [things about] of working on the adaptation – cooking up this Shining funhouse tribute, and getting to see my hero geek out.”
The movie also fleshes out the supplementary characters, especially Wade’s love interest, Art3mis, who is also embedded in Oasis and competing for the prize. In the book, she’s a paper-thin virtual idol, whom Wade stalks and harries for attention. Her role is a lonely geek’s dream girl: a beautiful woman who shares Wade’s pop culture obsessions and approvingly acknowledges his references. We meet the real woman behind the Art3mis avatar only at the end of the novel, at which point her function is to symbolise the book’s “real life is more important than games” moral swerve.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Olivia Cooke as Art3mis in Ready Player One. Photograph: Jaap Buitendijk/AP
In the movie, she leads a resistance group against the evil IOI Corporation, which wants to seize control of Oasis so it can be massively monetised. Actor Olivia Cooke, best known for her role in the horror TV drama Bates Motel, adds charm and depth to the character. She is given a life outside Wade’s yearning.
Cline acknowledges the book’s solipsistic focus, and puts it down to his inexperience as a novelist. “In retrospect, one of the ways I made it easier for myself to write the novel was by using a first-person narrative,” he says. “Because it was such a sprawling story, anchoring the point of view with one character made it easier for me to keep track of what was going on – I could show the whole world from his perspective, but this ended up limiting the other characters. One of the biggest advantages of retelling the story cinematically is to give them more to do. Instead of Wade doing everything, Art3mis has much more agency – she has a backstory and a personal investment in taking down IOI.”
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What also helps is having Spielberg in charge of the adaptation. The director famously started playing video games while making Jaws, inserting a brief glimpse of the Sega game Killer Shark into the movie, and he respected Cline’s novel. “Through the production he had a dog-eared copy of the paperback that was filled with Post-it notes and highlighted sections,” says Cline. “He gave copies of the book to other departments. So many things from the book that were never in the script made their way into the movie because he had everyone refer to the text for set design and even costumes. When you meet Aitch for the first time, she’s wearing the Rush 2112 T-shirt she’s wearing in the novel – that was something the costume designer took right from the page. It was everything you’d hope would happen as a novelist.”
What the movie confirms, with its luscious video game imagery and addition of fresher references (of everything from Chucky to Overwatch), is that there are more geeks around than ever before. Revelling in memories of favourite games, films and characters is now a mainstream pastime. In 2001, Cline never saw this coming. “I didn’t have any audience in mind when I wrote the book,” he says. “I thought maybe a few people who remembered the 1980s might enjoy it, and if I was lucky it might become a cult novel in certain circles. But it never occurred to me that it would have mass appeal, because how could it? It was so specific to me and my interests. It still blows my mind.”
Warner Bros.
The Box Office:
Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. will release Ready Player One across much of the world Thursday night, where it will try to end the slight post-Black Panther slump for supposed "event movies." Whether Walt Disney's Black Panther has dinged the competition or whether not-so-exciting competition has allowed Black Panther to flourish (probably a little of both), we are certainly in a domestic slump. The hope is that Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Ernest Cline's popular YA fantasy/fanboy-nostalgia novel can end what otherwise has been a grim March on a happier note.
And since WB and friends (Amblin, Village Roadshow, etc.) spent $175 million on the sci-fi fantasy (Spielberg's second-priciest movie behind only Paramount/Viacom Inc.'s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), the projected over/under $35m figure needs to shoot up a little. As such, Warner Bros. screened the movie at SXSW and got a deluge of mostly positive reviews. Even if the final tally may be a bit more measured, the initial boost of good notices will help the movie, as the likes of (for example) Mad Max: Fury Road and Dunkirk thrived partially thanks to pre-release raves.
Although, heck, provided the Tye Sheridan/Olivia Cooke fantasy ends up with a "fresh" rating over at Rotten Tomatoes (i.e., at least 60% of the critics giving it around a 6/10 or better), it will be the first "big" movie to achieve it since the MCU blockbuster. Yes, I'm writing this before I see the film, so we'll see to what extent this singular critic affects the narrative in the days before release. The film isn't exactly filled with big stars (Will all those justly trumpeting Lena Waithe's Vanity Fair cover story this week actually show up to support her via time and money?), and the book is known without necessarily being Hunger Games-huge so this will be an interesting test to see how much value Steven Spielberg's name on the marquee brings for what for many folks will be a "new-to-you" for a big-budget action fantasy.
The Review:
Ready Player One is a triumph of big-screen spectacle and pop-culture nostalgia, with just enough meta-commentary to make it sting. Yes, it mostly ignores the broader implications of its sci-fi premise, but it features a few likable heroes, some decent villains and a handful of crackling action sequences. Source fidelity or not, it hampers itself via the half-hearted and frankly insincere declarations concerning the value of the pop culture iconography in question. If anything, the references and IP cameos serve as a distraction. However, if you take the film's shockingly contemplative final reel at face value, that may be the point.
Based on Ernest Cline's 2011 novel, Ready Player One concerns a post-apocalyptic Earth which has succumbed to overpopulation and climate change. The core entertainment, the main distraction from the present-tense misery, is a vast virtual reality world known as the OASIS, where players can virtually do anything and be anyone. We pick up our story five years after the death of OASIS creator James Donovan Halliday (Mark Rylance) as we discover that the reclusive, painfully introverted (and presumably autistic) genius has created a global scavenger hunt for three hidden keys. Whoever finds the keys wins control of the OASIS.
The film gets off to a bumpy start from the get-go, with a deluge of expositional voice-over and a sense that anything can happen, without rhyme or reason, within this fantastical world. How does the real world operate when the population spends their time in a VR world? How do things get made or jobs get done? The core premise poses several unanswered questions. Before the first reel is up, we are off to the races as our hero Wade Watts (a perfectly okay Tye Sheridan) is about to participate in a massive vehicular competition which will allegedly lead to the first key.
More than the pop culture references or nostalgia-bait pandering in the source material, Steven Spielberg presumably wanted to play with the notion of virtual reality action sequences. It is to his credit that so much of what we see maintains a certain physical weight and plausibility even as A) none of is technically real and B) the rules seem to change on a dime. Even if I argue that the storytelling leaves a bit to be desired, the primary action sequences are a visual delight and worth the price of admission on the biggest possible screen.
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I'm especially fond of the nightclub sequence that begins as a dance, sabotages itself through needless homage but then reasserts itself at the end. The horror-ish second-act set piece set inside a famous movie (which I will not reveal) offers a mix of genre thrills and pathos. And while the final battle is a bit too busy, it works as an epic surface-level mass battle set piece. To paraphrase a classic film that it pays more than a little homage to, if it wasn't for the constant geek pandering, Ready Player One might have been a great movie.
I guess it's "neat" to see The Iron Giant or the Back to the Future Delorean all intertwined in the same fictional terrain, but the movie frankly doesn't need them. The core heroes (especially Oliva Cooke who does her damnedest to make Art3mis more than just “the girl” and Lena Waithe as a woman who epitomizes the notion of using the OASIS to change yourself) earn their keep, the baddies (Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller and Hannah John-Kamen) are a lot of fun and the action sequences are genuinely thrilling, to the point where the IP drops feel like a Friedberg/Seltzer movie. The movie never really buys its assertions that 1970’s-1990’s pop culture is somehow superior to the rest, so its periodic attempts at "gatekeeping" both offend and don’t ring true.
If anything, the movie is at its best when it is subtly criticizing the notion of hiding in the past to escape from the present. There is a real potency to the flashbacks to a desperately lonely and disconnected Rylance, even if I wanted to know more about his former partner (a subtle Simon Pegg), and the final sequences flirt with turning Ready Player One into an Unforgiven or Rambo-level of self-critique. I can only imagine what Spielberg thinks of the generation that grew up on his movies and ended up electing an 80s pop culture joke to the presidency.
I wish Ready Player One had more directly engaged with the world it offered, both inside and outside of the OASIS, and I wish there was more time for thoughtful deconstruction, especially considering the long-term consequences of a generation gripped in pop culture nostalgia. You will roll your eyes at certain cameos or certain tropes ("I know the difference between a fanboy and a hater!"), it still works as a ripping action spectacle. Spielberg still has the talent and skill to deliver this kind of thing better than most of his peers and most of those who followed in his footsteps.
Rylance single-handedly elevates the movie and offers a poignancy and subtext that, like Hook, delivers moving self-reflection in what otherwise is mere blockbuster overkill. Whether the film’s version of Halliday is a variation on Spielberg himself or George Lucas, the idea of the man who essentially created modern pop culture realizing the unhappy ending of his legacy makes this seemingly “just for kicks” sci-fi throwback into an essential item in the Steven Spielberg canon, something akin to Spielberg's Unforgiven. Ready Player One will make you nostalgic for a time when a movie like Ready Player One was itself a one-of-a-kind cinematic event.
“Ready Player One” looks to come out victorious at the box office over the Easter holiday weekend.
Steven Spielberg’s latest film is eyeing $38 million to $42 million over its four-day opening weekend. Given a light weekend of new releases, that number would likely be enough for “Ready Player One” to dominate the domestic box office.
Warner Bros.’ nostalgic fantasy adventure, which currently holds an 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, gets an early start on Easter weekend by debuting with Wednesday night previews at 3,500 locations. Starting Thursday, it then expands to 4,200 locations, while launching day and date internationally in 62 markets. Tracking on the film, with a reported budget between $150 million and $175 million, is down slightly from initial estimates of $45 million to $55 million over its four-day opening.
Based on Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, “Ready Player One” is set in an elaborate virtual reality world full of pop culture totems from the ’80s. The film, written by Cline and Zak Penn, stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance. In the year 2045, virtual reality software OASIS is used to engage in work and play. Sheridan’s character, Wade Watts, discovers clues to a hidden game within the program that promises the winner full ownership of the OASIS.
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Spielberg most recently helmed political drama “The Post,” which made $165 million worldwide and landed a best picture nod at this year’s Oscars.
Meanwhile, the second weekend of Universal and Legendary’s “Pacific Rim Uprising” will once again battle the tenacious “Black Panther,” as both tentpoles are aiming for $10 million and $15 million at the domestic box office.
Universal and Legendary’s “Pacific Rim Uprising” landed a modest $28 million opening domestically and a much healthier $122.5 million internationally for a worldwide total of $150 million. That’s not to say the seventh weekend of “Black Panther” won’t put up a fair fight. The Marvel film has taken in $631 million to date, making it the fifth highest-grossing movie ever in the U.S. ahead of “The Avengers,” as well as the highest-grossing superhero movie in the U.S., not adjusted for inflation.
Also launching this weekend is Lionsgate’s “Tyler Perry’s Acrimony,” looking to make $7-$11 million in around 2,000 locations. The psychological thriller, produced, written, and directed by Perry, follows Taraji P. Henson as a wife who takes revenge on her unfaithful husband (Lyriq Bent).
The third installment of the “God’s Not Dead” series — “God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness” — is estimated to gross around $5 million at 1,675 locations in its opening weekend. David A. R. White, John Corbett, Shane Harper, Ted McGinley, and Tatum O’Neal make up the ensemble cast portraying a congregation displaced after their church burns down. Easter is always a fertile period for faith-based movies, and the past two weeks saw two recent faith-based films, “I Can Only Imagine” and “Paul, Apostle of Christ.”
In its second weekend, Roadside Attraction and Lionsgate’s “I Can Only Imagine” has been a surprisingly strong performer, earning $38 million. Affirm Films’ “Paul, Apostle of Christ” opened last weekend in line with estimates at $5 million.
Three films — “Baaghi 2,” “Finding Your Feet” and “Gemini” — will have a limited release.
“Baaghi 2,” an Indian action thriller, will open in 125 theaters. The film, featuring Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani, is a remake of 2016’s Telugu movie “Kshanam.” Aimed at the same mature audience that turned out for films like “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” Roadside Attractions and Entertainment One’s “Finding Your Feet” stars Imelda Staunton, who seeks refuge in London with her sister when she discovers that her husband of 40 years (John Sessions) is having an affair with her best friend (Josie Lawrence). Neon’s “Gemini” was written and directed by Aaron Katz. The mystery thriller sees Lola Kirke as the assistant of a Hollywood starlet Heather Anderson, played by Zoe Kravitz.
At the premiere of “Ready Player One” in Los Angeles, Steven Spielberg was full of admiration for the high school student activists.
Spielberg, who attended March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C. on March 24, praised Emma Gonzalez from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in particular.
“We were so proud of every speaker,” Spielberg said. “Emma Gonzalez’s six and-a-half minutes of silence was profound. Everybody was crying.”
Gonzalez is a survivor of the Feb. 14 massacre at the high school and a co-founder of the gun control advocacy group Never Again MSD. Spielberg said he was hopeful about the impact of the activism.
“College students helped stop the Vietnam War,” Spielberg said. “Maybe high school students can do something about gun control.”
“Ready Player One” held its premiere at the Dolby Theater on Monday night. The 71-year-old said he was in awe of the special effects work in “Ready Player One” and spoke about how far special effects have come over the past 40 years, noting that he saw a rough cut of his friend George Lucas’ “Star Wars” more than four decades ago.
“These artists are exceptional with their ability to create this kind of believability in a totally digital world,” he said at the TCL Chinese Theater.
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Spielberg also mused on the red carpet about star Lena Waithe. “She sees life around her and she knows how to write that life around her and put it on TV,” he said. “There was something about her that I knew would be perfect for my movie.”
Waithe won an Emmy for her writing on the “Thanksgiving” episode on Netflix’s “Master of None,” which was partly based on her own experience of coming out to her mother. In “Ready Player One,” she portrays the wisecracking Helen/Aech character.
Other participants on the red carpet said Spielberg was constantly surprising them on the set. Screenwriter Zak Penn recalled that there was a new nugget every day — such as discovering that Spielberg had been a second unit director on Brian de Palma’s “Scarface” and that Penn had worked with him in “Men In Black” and “The Mask of Zorro.”
For Simon Pegg, who plays the Ogden Morrow role, being in the film was a trip back in time, since much of it is based in 1980s pop culture.
“I had posters of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ‘E.T.’ and ‘Star Wars,’ of course, so this is my era,” he added. “This is like looking back into my childhood.”
Ben Mendelsohn, who plays the villain role, said working with Spielberg was a surprise.
“It’s very different from what you expect it to be,” he added. “You don’t expect the degree of infectious enthusiasm that he brings to work. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”
Hannah John-Kamen noted that Spielberg was a big fan of show tunes on the set such as those from “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Guys and Dolls.” “He’s got a great singing voice,” she added.
Besides Spielberg, producers on the film are Donald De Line, Dan Farah and Kristie Macosko Krieger. Warner Bros. opens “Ready Player One” on March 29.
