At an event today in Austin, Ernest Cline and the crew of the Ready Player One debuted the film’s second trailer.
Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline’s novel, is the story of teen hero and walking-’80s-pop-culture-encyclopedia Wade Watts. (What can we say? Ernest Cline believes in writing what you know.) The story follows Watts on a journey through a moody dystopia and the virtual world of OASIS, hunting for – what else? – easter eggs.
In the film, which is being directed by Steven Spielberg, Tye Sheridan plays Watts, while Olivia Cooke plays Art3mis and Ben Mendelsohn plays Nolan Sorrento, the story’s villain.
Discussing the film, Ernest Cline said, in a Q&A after the trailer, “One of the themes that comes through in the book that I also comes through in the movie is striking a balance between escapism and the real world…Striking a balance between tending to the real world and the needs of the real world but also art and escapism as an essential part of life, and something that we all desperately need to maintain our sanity in dark times.”
He also mentioned that he’s writing a sequel to Ready Player One, saying, “There’s no better inspiration for a writer to return to a world that they have worked on than Steven Spielberg bringing that world to life.”
Watch the trailer below, and if any exciting info comes out of the event in Austin today, we’ll update with it here. Ready Player One releases in theatres March 30, 2018.