The movie rights to Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One were snapped up by Warner Bros. and De Line Films before the book was even finished, but some five years later they’re still no closer to production. That might be looking to change now, as the adaptation has a new writer.
The Wrap is reporting that Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand) has been hired to tidy up and re-work a script that was written earlier by Eric Eason and Cline himself.
Here’s the books synopsis:
It’s the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We’re out of oil. We’ve wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS – and his massive fortune – will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based in the culture of the late twentieth century. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle.
The book is chock full of “nerdy and geeky” references to 80s culture and has been widely praised by those who have read it. The audio book was read by Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory‘s Wil Wheaton.
More news as it comes in.
Originally published June 24, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
