A new image from Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated sci-fi adaptation Ready Player One has landed online, and it offers a pretty interesting look at a main character. Based on the Ernest Cline novel of the same name, the film takes place in 2045, where the world is on the brink of chaos and collapse. Tye Sheridan stars as young boy named Wade Watts, who decides to join a worldwide contest to find a literal Easter egg hidden in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality in which most people now spend their time. Whoever finds the Easter egg gains control of the OASIS in perpetuity, so Wade teams up with other “gunters” to find the egg before a nefarious corporation can find it and monetize the whole thing, locking out those less fortunate.
When Spielberg signed on to direct this thing, his first piece of casting wasn’t Wade Watts but the female lead role of Art3mis. It came pretty quick, as he settled on actress Olivia Cooke based on the strength of her performance in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. This new image reveals Cooke’s take on Art3mis, and those who’ve read the book know there’s something about Art3mis’ physical appearance that makes her stand out. We can’t see it here, and I’m curious to see if Spielberg or screenwriters Cline and Zak Penn altered or excised that revelation.
I really like the homemade design of the OASIS get-up seen here. It’s realistic, but also colorful. Spielberg isn’t forsaking wonder for grittiness, and it looks like we’re in for a sci-fi vision that’s a bit more “fun” than Minority Report or A.I.
Check out the image below via Empire. Ready Player One also stars Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller, and Mark Rylance and opens in theaters on March 30, 2018.
Image via Warner Bros.
via Collider