Mark Rylance is close to pushing the start button on READY PLAYER ONE at Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow. The Oscar-winning Bridge of Spies actor is in negotiations for Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline‘s best-selling novel.
Set in 2044, Ready Player One revolves around a highly valuable online virtual reality space called OASIS, in which most inhabitants of Earth spend their free time. The story follows Wade Watts, a teenage who escapes the slums by logging into the digital confines OASIS. When the creator of a popular video game system dies, a virtual contest is created to compete for his billions — and the contestants are willing to do anything to win.
Rylance is circling the role of James Donovan Halliday, the Howard Hughes-esque creator of OASIS. He would join the growing cast that includes Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg, and Ben Mendelsohn.
Production is slated to start in the summer with a premiere date of March 30, 2018. Spielberg will also produce under Amblin Entertainment alongside Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger, and Dan Farah.
This will mark Rylance’s fourth collaboration with Spielberg. He worked with him in the aforementioned Bridge of Spies and can be seen in the upcoming The B.F.G.. It was also announced that he will be playing Pope Pius IX in Spielberg’s adaptation of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, which is slated to come out after Ready Player One.
He is repped by Hamilton Hodell.
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Dino-Ray Ramos | Staff Writer
