Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2015/03/26/spielberg-to-direct-ready-play.html
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Another book on my list getting turned to a movie before I can get to it. Damnit. I find that it can always go either way with Spielberg. On the one hand, you have Jaws, and on the other, you have Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and Unnecessary Subplots. Now in 3D Smellovision!
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Spielberg better give a cameo to Cory (and Wil Wheaton)!
Also curious if he’ll keep the preachy atheist stuff from the book. Somehow I doubt it.
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What’s up with the alleged Deadline link?
Also - first film in 14 years? First film with WB, yes, but it’ s not like he stopped working.
I didn’t much like the book anyway, though, so guess it doesn’t matter 
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I was scared, I read it first as:
Spielberg to direct Real Player movie
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Maybe it’s because I was college-aged in the '80’s but I found a lot of the '80’s-reference name-dropping to be distracting, to the extent that it overshadowed the main storyline. Felt like the author marathoned a whole bunch of “I Love the 80’s!” episodes before writing.
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That’s exactly why I loved the book.
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Fingers crossed that he doesn’t “update” the references for more iGeneration appeal.
PLEASE stick with the GenX era references!
(Most of us are still in the target demo…)
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It’s going to be a nightmare getting the rights to all the things in the book. Joust, PacMac, Tempest, Ultraman, Godzilla…etc.
It just wouldn’t work with some copyright copycat things like ParkMan.
That ridiculous (yet great original short) Pixels movie seems to have gotten those kinds of rights just fine.
You can get to it today, bro, and you should, it’s pure fun!
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I get why people like the book, and am glad people found something they like. Personally , though, the number of 80s references thrown at me just got to be too much.
Plus, I’m the kind of person who “does the math” on things, even subconciously. If you “do the math” on all the things Wade said he watched and did, he’d have been in his mid 30s. 40s if he actually slept.
The 80s was a big decade full of a lot.
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“…it seems imperative for the audience to feel like they were dropped into the middle of a video game. That kind of technology is just becoming available…”
Hrm. Try Avalon from 2001. Not perfect, but the budget was probably a tiny fraction of what Spielberg will be playing with…
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STUDIO EXEC 1: Hey! We got this great book that the nerdy kids and nostalgic Gen-Xers just love. This thing’ll make a fortune with a highly-desired demo!
STUDIO EXEC 2:I dunno…it doesn’t seem to have the requisite mawkish, manipulative sentimentality. We’re gonna have to bring in an expert.
BOTH: SPIELBERG!
(Slurping noises)
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True…but studios are a bit more tight with rights. This is a Warner bro production…would Ghostbusters, War Games, Buckaroo Bonzi, and Back to the Future and Godzilla give up their properties for a cameo in the movie? Yeah, BtF was a Speilburg production…but Universal owns the rights.
Okay…I see Godzilla is Warner Bro…and War Games is United Artists. That will be tricky to work out, because a big part of the book was the script for War Games.
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I have a problem with Spielberg getting involved with these movie adaptations. Robopocalypse is now in indefinite hiatus, because he wanted a script re-write. If Cline signs over the rights, Ready Player One, could be headed down the same road as Wilson’s work. Besides, I’m not sure if you can format this novel into a 2 to 3 hour movie.
He did that in 2010 - the day after he finalized the publishing deal.
This news spurred 3 convos in the cubes from nerds that only just finished the book.
None knew of the DeLorean giveaway. n00bs.
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