Following The BFG over at Disney last year, Steven Spielberg's next directorial project is another theatrical adaptation of a popular book: Ready Player One, originally written by Ernest Cline. For those who haven't read the original 2011 novel, much of the story takes place in the OASIS, a virtual universe where people can escape the hardships of the real world to both game MMORPG style or just take part in its societal offerings. Fans have been wondering how the OASIS world will look in the Ready Player One movie, and according to Tye Sheridan, who plays lead protagonist Wade Watts, it was accomplished via motion-capture technology. Sheridan explained:
We shot for the first seven, eight weeks in Mo-Cap. Everything that happens in The Oasis is all shot in motion capture.
Tye Sheridan, who right now is best known for playing Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse, also mentioned beforehand in this Collider interview that roughly 60% of Ready Player One will take place in the OASIS, with the remaining 40% set in the normal world. So rather than go the full CGI route with the scenes set in OASIS, Steven Spielberg opted to make full use of his actors by having them act out the scenes in motion capture, which sounds like a wise course of action. Steven Spielberg already has plenty of motion capture experience with The Adventures of Tintin and The BFG, and even though these characters are being represented in the virtual world by avatars, their movements and actions will look much more realistic.
During the interview, Tye Sheridan also addressed the avatar situation in Ready Player One, admitting that he still hasn't learned specific details about how Wade's avatar, Parzival, will look. As he put it:
No, that's still kind of a mystery to me. I don't know what the Avatar looks like, but I've heard that it doesn't look like myself.
Set in the year 2044, Ready Player One takes place on an Earth that's been ravaged by global warming, energy crises and economic hardship. Wade Watts, who lives in poverty, is one of the many people who is searching for a secret treasure left behind left by OASIS's creator, James Halliday, before his death. Hidden somewhere within the virtual world, the person who finds said treasure would receive Halliday's fortune and control over OASIS. When Wade accidentally stumbles upon the first legitimate clue, he'll not only gain fame across the world, but also be targeted by sinister forces also after Halliday's treasure.
Aside from Tye Sheridan as Wade/Parzival, the main Ready Player One cast includes Olivia Cooke as Sam Cook/Art3mis, Mark Rylance as James Halliday/Anorak, Ben Mendelsohn as Nolan Sorrento, Simon Pegg as Ogden Morrow, Win Morisaki as Toshiro Yoshiaki/Daito, Philip Zhao as Akihide Karatsu/Shoto, Hannah John-Kamen, Letitia Wright and T.J. Miller as i-R0k.
Ready Player One will be released in theaters on March 30, 2018.
