READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

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AndyDursin
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READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

#1 Post by AndyDursin »

People LOVED this book --
I dare you not to fall in love with Ready Player One. And I mean head over heels in love--the way you fall for someone who is smart, feisty, and who can effortlessly finish your favorite movie lines, music lyrics, or literature quotes before they come out of your mouth.

Ready Player One expertly mines a copious vein of 1980s pop culture, catapulting the reader on a light-speed adventure in an advanced but backward-looking future.

The story is set in a near-term future in which the new, new form of the Internet is a realistic virtual multi-verse called the OASIS. Most human interaction takes place via goggles and gloves in millions of unique worlds, including the boring (and free) “public education” world from which our teenage protagonist must escape.

Our unlikely hero is an overweight trailer park kid who goes by Wade Watts in real life, and “Parzival” to his best friends and mortal enemies--all of whom he interacts with virtually. Just like the Arthurian knight that is his namesake, young Wade is on a quest for an incredible treasure guarded by mythical creatures. Specifically, the creator of the OASIS and richest man on the planet, James Halliday, stipulated in his will that his fortune be given to the first person who can find an “Easter egg” hidden somewhere in the OASIS. The catch? Every devilishly complex clue on this treasure hunt is rooted in an intimate knowledge of 1980s pop culture.

This leaves the people of the future hilariously obsessed with every aspect of the 1980s. The setup is particularly brilliant, because Ernie Cline seems to have a laser-beam knowledge of (and warm, fuzzy love for) every pop song, arcade game, and giant robot produced in the last thirty years. Seriously, this is a guy who owns and regularly drives a 1982 DeLorean that has been mocked up to look exactly like the time-traveling car in Back to the Future, complete with a glowing flux capacitor.

But Ready Player One isn’t just a fanboy’s wet dream. Real villains are lurking, threatening our hero with death in their ruthless hunt for the treasure. Worse, these corporate baddies are posers with no love for the game – they have movie dialogue piped in via radio earpieces, use bots to cheat at arcade games like JOUST, and don’t hesitate to terrorize or murder people in the real world to achieve their aims inside the OASIS.

As the book climaxes, a mega-battle unfolds with sobering life-or-death stakes, yet soldiered entirely by exciting and downright fun pop-culture icons. The bad guys are piloting a ferocious Mechagodzilla. Our good guy has to leave his X-Wing fighter aboard his private flotilla so that he can pilot an authentic Ultraman recreation. And how do you not grin when someone dons a pair of virtual Chuck Taylor All Stars that bestow the power of flight?

Cline is fearless and he lets his imagination soar, yet this pop scenery could easily come off as so much fluff. Instead, Cline keeps the stakes high throughout, and the epic treasure hunt structure (complete with an evolving high-score list) keeps the action intense. The plot unfolds with constant acceleration, never slowing down or sagging in the middle, to create a thrilling ride with a fulfilling ending.

Best of all, the book captures the aura of the manifold worlds it depicts. If Ready Player One were a living room, it would be wood-panelled. If it were shoes, it would be high-tops. And if it were a song, well, it would have to be Eye of the Tiger.


Movie coming Christmas of '17...wouldn't figure to be a John Williams type of project though...hmm....

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/steve ... 201558130/
Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi pic, “Ready Player One,” has been scheduled for a Dec. 15, 2017, bow.

The Warner Bros., Village Roadshow and DreamWorks release is based on the buzzy Ernest Cline book of the same name. Spielberg, Donald De Line, Dan Farah and Kristie Macosko Krieger will produce, with Bruce Berman serving as exec producer.

“Any film from Steven Spielberg is an event film, so it felt right to date this thrilling new project from one of our greatest filmmakers for the holiday season,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.’ president of domestic distribution, in a release.

Cline’s novel, published in 2011, follows the rise of virtual reality universe the Oasis, which humans living in the not-too-distant future begin to value above the real world. Zak Penn adapted the story for the screen.

Spielberg’s latest pic, Tom Hanks starrer “Bridge of Spies,” bows in October.

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Monterey Jack
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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#2 Post by Monterey Jack »

I haven't read the book, but from what I've gathered, it sounds like Family Guy Cutaways: The Movie. It also strikes me as a nightmare to get the rights to all of the nostalgic references the film will require, but if any filmmaker has the clout to make it happen, I suppose Spielberg does (he did get Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny to share a movie screen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, after all).

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#3 Post by jkholm »

I listened to the audio book a year or so ago and enjoyed it. Wil Wheaton does an excellent job as the narrator. (There's a throw-away line in the book about Wheaton becoming president one day.)

The major problem with the book, and potentially the movie, is the target audience. The book is non-stop 80's references. Several plot points hinge on very specific and probably obscure 80's trivia. If you get it, it's a lot of fun but I don't know if anyone under 30 would enjoy it.

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#4 Post by Monterey Jack »

jkholm wrote:The major problem with the book, and potentially the movie, is the target audience. The book is non-stop 80's references. Several plot points hinge on very specific and probably obscure 80's trivia. If you get it, it's a lot of fun but I don't know if anyone under 30 would enjoy it.
The 80's nostalgia craze has crested somewhat over the past five years...now it's all 90's stuff getting rebooted and revived. Back in 2010, a Ready Player One movie would have killed at the box office, but by 2017? And, again, what studio would greenlight a movie crammed with references that the majority of teens and twentysomethings (the key demographic these days) won't understand?

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#5 Post by AndyDursin »

We never really got a really good "80s movie" though in the way we saw the 60s and 70s get nostalgia films on-screen...the whole video game industry alone could fuel a very interesting and fascinating film, and I think there is a hungry audience for it too. PIXELS wasn't it, but this movie might do the job as a love letter -- of sorts -- to a time that laid the groundwork for all the gaming and tech innovations we have today.

Plus, Spielberg was/is always a huge video game addict, and it seems this is the property for him to pay homage in a way that could bring younger viewers in as well.

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#6 Post by Monterey Jack »

Alan Silvestri to score Ready Player One, while John Williams concentrates on Spielberg's The Papers.

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/john- ... 202490105/

Considering how good Thomas Newman's "fill-in" score for Spielberg's Bridge Of Spies was, I can live with Williams being absent for RPO.

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#7 Post by AndyDursin »

Williams bypassing READY PLAYER ONE is not a surprise given the nature of the story and probably the peripheral music that will be involved in it also. Is there room for a "conventional score" there to begin with? That said, I'm certainly glad it's Silvestri and not Hans Zimmer!

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#8 Post by AndyDursin »

Steven playing in the CGI Sandbox again, giving off a BFG kind of feel here IMO.

Once the "fanboy" effect of seeing Freddy Kruger and THE IRON GIANT sharing screen time wears off, one wonders what will be left...as this looks like every other "Modern Studio CGI Tentpole" to me, outside of the licensed characters being involved (mostly, I'm guessing, from WB owned properties).


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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#9 Post by Paul MacLean »

AndyDursin wrote:Steven playing in the CGI Sandbox again, giving off a BFG kind of feel here IMO.
Eh.

And isn't The Iron Giant a 90s character?

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - Christmas '17

#10 Post by Monterey Jack »

Paul MacLean wrote: And isn't The Iron Giant a 90s character?
No doubt a substitution for Mechagodzilla, which WB likely couldn't get the rights to from Toho. The Iron Giant is already owned by WB, much like 90% of the pop-culture characters who appeared in The LEGO Batman Movie.

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

#11 Post by AndyDursin »

Entirely likely. Like I said, most of it looked like Warner-owned properties and stuff Spielberg himself made/owns and can get a deal on with Universal or whoever. Still THE IRON GIANT itself doesn't look like it fits with the very (mostly?) decade-specific references...I mean, it's hard to even say the IRON GIANT is even a "90s product" seeing as it came out in 99 and made most of its noise on video -- in the early 21st century.

Naturally, who knows how this is going to turn out, but I can already hear the inevitable audience babble for this movie:

"Look, it's Darth Vader!"

"Look, it's the Back to the Future car!"

"Look, it's Batman!"


Spielberg's name is going to cushion the Tomato Meter with positive reviews regardless -- the kool-aid drinkers like everything with a name director these days -- but he's coming off a list of lesser efforts, the awful THE BFG most specifically. BRIDGE OF SPIES was strong but that could've been directed by anyone, the script was solid but felt almost like an HBO movie. The first impression his trailers give off -- KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL and BFG looked like garbage right off the bat -- is a worry too.

I mean, isn't this basically THE MATRIX with pop culture references?

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

#12 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Naturally, who knows how this is going to turn out, but I can already hear the inevitable audience babble for this movie:

"Look, it's Darth Vader!"

"Look, it's the Back to the Future car!"

"Look, it's Batman!"

...says the Family Guy fan. :P

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

#13 Post by AndyDursin »

Not really a "fan" these days seeing as I haven't watched it in years!

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

#14 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote:Not really a "fan" these days seeing as I haven't watched it in years!
But even in the show's "prime", it consisted of NOTHING else besides incessant 80's pop culture references (sandwiched in-between fart, rape and AIDS jokes :roll: ). I don't see how anyone who at any time enjoyed Family Guy could have any leg to stand on criticizing Ready Player One for doing the same thing. And at least RPO has a reason why the characters are obsessed with the minutiae of that decade.

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Re: READY PLAYER ONE - Spielberg - 2018 - Trailer

#15 Post by AndyDursin »

I don't see how anyone who at any time enjoyed Family Guy could have any leg to stand on criticizing Ready Player One for doing the same thing.
Is there some reason it always comes back to FAMILY GUY? :lol:

The problem with arguing this is that, in your mind, FAMILY GUY isn't funny -- but it's like there is no other opinion that exists other than it is unfunny and awful and Seth Macfarlane is horrible (well, scratch that he is an a-hole lol).

However, the show has been on the air for nearly 300 episodes over 18 years. So clearly, someone out there in the world thinks it's funny. I don't find THE SIMPSONS funny and never have, but I don't dump on people who find Groening and his shows funny. I just don't find the humor in his shows amusing.

As far as FAMILY GUY goes, I always felt the pop culture riffs were funny, thrown in effectively throughout episodes and the observations were often obscure and on point. Lukas used to email me "hey did you see that" and what not when the show was on for the first few seasons. Did you ever see many animated shows drop music from POLTERGEIST in the middle of episodes? And I always found this bit funny too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppjHWa_9OeE

So in the context of a weekly animated comedy, which has never done anything except try to make viewers laugh, those references worked for me...and sure the show has slowed down, but even SOUTH PARK sucked with a laughless, awful season that just concluded.

I will absolutely criticize READY PLAYER ONE if it's a waste of time like THE BFG or doesn't have a point other than to provoke fan-service amongst nerds with endless CGI call-outs. I didn't read the book, obviously I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen enough mediocrity from Spielberg recently to at least be concerned about the prospects of it. Hopefully it works out in a way a lot of his recent work hasn't.
8)

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