Holy **** . . . the mother of all film/game rights might actually get made. For those that don't know, imagine a virtual reality game meets a love letter to the 80s meets Willy Wonka.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/steven-spielberg-direct-sci-fi-784370

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Steven Spielberg has signed on to direct Warner Bros.' adaptation of sci-fi novel Ready Player One.
The movie is intended to be Spielberg's next project after he wraps The BFG, his adaptation of theRoald Dahl novel. Spielberg will also produce the movie with Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Dan Farah. Village Roadshow with co-finance and co-produce with Warners.Zak Penn wrote the script adapting the novel, written by Ernie Cline. The story is set in a virtual world called Oasis in which a teenager finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes after the game's founder dies and offers his fortune as the grand prize.Jesse Ehrman and Racheline Benveniste will oversee for the studio, which is heralding Spielberg's boarding as a momentous occasion and return of a family member. He last directedA.I. for the studio in 2001 and in the 1980s produced several film such as Goonies and Gremlinsthat helped establish his Amblin banner."We are thrilled to welcome Steven back to Warner Bros, said Greg Silverman, president, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. "We had an historic series of collaborations in the 80s and 90s and have wanted to bring him back for years. As for Ready Player One, we have always felt that Steven was the dream director for this project."

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Mother of God....

And you guys called me crazy and said it couldn't be done on TCTTS' thread.

Should I read Ready Player One or not? Been hearing about it forever, but now I don't know if I want to spoil it.

Read the book (or do the audio book narrated by Wil Wheaton). It is a great experience.

I am curious how much they will be able to get into the film.

Will do.

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Should I read Ready Player One or not? Been hearing about it forever, but now I don't know if I want to spoil it.

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One of my favorite books of the last few years if not ever. It's so nerdy and so fun.

Great to hear. Will try to get to relatively soon. I'm assuming Spielberg's ultimate version will veer enough here and there that there will be plenty of surprises left.

There will have to be changes depending in what they can get the rights to use

I keep reading that Spielberg's basically going to be able to get whatever he wants, rights wise. He's the one guy who can persuade for/demand just about anything.

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You want me to ever direct something for your studio again? Give me the rights...

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Dear Lord...so excited.

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I keep reading that Spielberg's basically going to be able to get whatever he wants, rights wise. He's the one guy who can persuade for/demand just about anything.

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I hope so... As cool as the video game stuff will be, I really want to see them using the old movie scenes as well.

Aside from that, this movie can have a couple very powerful scenes involving the characters outside of the Oasis (I won't go into any spoilers).

I think my only worry is one movie won't be able to cover it all unless it's long. Enders Game went with they typical "movies are 2 hours" approach and it felt very rushed jumping from scene to scene. I hope they go Lord of the Rings on us and give us a 3 hour movie to sink into.

His biggest challenge may be dealing with all the brands, copyrights, trademarks that the books uses so haphazardly.

I think using all that stuff in a film may be slightly harder then in a book.

EDIT: ...... and my post has already been mentioned above. Sorry!

There are literally scenes where they reenact old movies

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His biggest challenge may be dealing with all the brands, copyrights, trademarks that the books uses so haphazardly.

I think using all that stuff in a film may be slightly harder then in a book.

EDIT: ...... and my post has already been mentioned above. Sorry!

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I don't think it will be a big issue when it comes to the games, they managed to get a ****-ton of properties together for Wreck It Ralph for example. Atari and Activision and Nintendo have zero problems with publicity.

The problem is going to be the tv and movie stuff. What I bet they do is if Warner Bros. owns the property they'll use it, if they don't, they'll substitute one of their own properties instead. Fortunately WB has a pretty huge catalog of stuff to choose from, including all of MGM's back catalog of movies prior to 1986, which includes War Games for example.

Does WB own LOTR now too?

Sounds like Neuromancer meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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Does WB own LOTR now too?

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Yes, New Line Cinema is a part of WB.

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His biggest challenge may be dealing with all the brands, copyrights, trademarks that the books uses so haphazardly.

I think using all that stuff in a film may be slightly harder then in a book.

EDIT: ...... and my post has already been mentioned above. Sorry!

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I don't think it will be a big issue when it comes to the games, they managed to get a ****-ton of properties together for Wreck It Ralph for example. Atari and Activision and Nintendo have zero problems with publicity.

The problem is going to be the tv and movie stuff. What I bet they do is if Warner Bros. owns the property they'll use it, if they don't, they'll substitute one of their own properties instead. Fortunately WB has a pretty huge catalog of stuff to choose from, including all of MGM's back catalog of movies prior to 1986, which includes War Games for example.

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This was my biggest concern property rights wise. Glad they have it.

I doubt they will have much trouble getting rights to most of the references because all of them are in a positive light and most studios are happy to offer them in these cases.

I just hope MechaGodzilla is in the movie and that they can show he final battle on screen, which was one of the most ridiculous fight scenes ever. Total nerdgasm in that scene.

If done right this movie will be absolutely amazing. Spielberg is one of the few who can handle a project this ambitious.

I do wonder about the casting though because the real people in the books look nothing like their avatar characters. It's going to be pretty interesting to see how they handle this because it's actually pretty important to the storyline.

Overall, definitely looking forward to this.

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I do wonder about the casting though because the real people in the books look nothing like their avatar characters. It's going to be pretty interesting to see how they handle this because it's actually pretty important to the storyline.

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Guessing they hire different actors for the players and their avatars.

How old was the main character? Early 20's?

High school I believe, about to graduate.

SPOILER BELOW:




I remember a thing about him skipping school to solve puzzles.

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How old was the main character? Early 20's?

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The 3 main characters are around 18-20.

THOUGH,

I can see them keeping Artemis the same actress and potentially deciding just to have Wade be the same actor as well. Wade just needs to look really grungy and wear unfitted clothes to get a similar effect and then cleaned up in the Oasis.

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THOUGH,

I can see them keeping Artemis the same actress and potentially deciding just to have Wade be the same actor as well. Wade just needs to look really grungy and wear unfitted clothes to get a similar effect and then cleaned up in the Oasis.

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The character's name in Ready Player 1 is actually Art3mis.

Autocorrect

As someone with zero knowledge of anything about this, can someone explain where all the video game and tv properties come into the story?