A first look at Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated Ready Player One, based on the novel by Ernest Cline, was unveiled Saturday at Comic-Con in San Diego. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the "footage sees star Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts, teenager and gamer on a high-stakes treasure hunt in the all-encompassing video game, Oasis, designed by the nostalgic eccentric James Halliday, played by Spielberg-favorite Mark Rylance.... It was futuristic, big and ambitious--truly worthy of the book."
The movie, which will hit theaters March 30, 2018, was written by Cline, Eric Eason and Zak Penn. The cast also includes Olivia Cooke, T.J. Miller and Ben Mendelsohn. Spielberg appeared at Comic-Con with Cline, who said, "I grew up watching this man's movies and studying them."
Spielberg said of the book: "It was 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.... I read the book and said, 'They're going to need a younger director.' "