One of my favorite fun books of the last couple of years, but I have no idea how this is going to work as a movie.
There's the whole "Uncanny Valley" problem if they go full CGI. I suppose they could go live action, but it would be equally weird. Then there are the challenges. How in the hell do you do the 1st gate?
They have another problem with casting. Wade is a slob in real life, but supposedly handsome in the OASIS. There's Aech, which is it's own issue.
I suppose they could shoot 2 movies with 2 casts, really. One guy as Wade, one as Parzival, etc. It would be a pretty cool reveal to have Wade get catfished by Aech, then have the audience expecting it again with Art3miss. Real World shot as kind of yellow and faded, then super rich over-saturation in the OASIS world with entirely new cast members.
When I was reading Wade, I was thinking of Clark Duke from Hot Tub Time Machine in the movie Kickass
(Duke is on the left)