Ready Player One's Steven Spielberg assignment

By Chris Burns/March 25, 2015 4:18 pm EST

This afternoon it was confirmed that directorial duties for the movie Ready Player One would be given to Steven Spielberg. Easily one of the most famous movie directors in the history of the world, Spielberg will very easily give clout beyond reckoning to this science fiction project. The movie is based on the book by the same title, written by Ernest Cline, a fellow who today suggested that, due to the Spielberg assignment, he'd be having "a massive coronary" in the very near future.

This book is about the future. Much in the same way the sci-fi book Ender's Game attempts to predict the future with technology that does not yet exist, this book predicts the future with applications of technology that almost exists today.

Virtual reality is a key player in Ready Player One. The story has the world excited by a very rich man's virtual reality game in which the winner will attain his full estate.

The game is based on pop-culture clues from the 20th century, and the game is played by individual citizens as well as major corporations. Everyone wants to gain control of the creator's estate.

Above you'll see a fan-made trailer for the movie. This trailer was made all the way back in October of 2013, well before any major details of the film were revealed.

Now we know the following:

• Warner Bros. attained the rights to the film adaptation in June of 2010

• The rights were sold to Warner Bros. the day after the book was sold to Random House

• Cline wrote the first few drafts of the screenplay before it was handed off to the studio

• Film Director/Screenwriter Eric Eason wrote the first screenplay draft after Cline handed it off to the studio

• Screenwriter Zak Penn did the first rewrite of the script

• Steven Spielberg was attached to direct on March 25th, 2015

Below you'll see another fan-made trailer for the film.

With the interest we're seeing in this book well before a movie is made, it's clear there'll be more than your average amount of hype once the film gets closer to production. Can't wait!