‘Ready Player One’: Adapting characters from novel to screen
Recently, I read a novel called “Ready Player One,” by Ernest Cline. The novel is about a futuristic world where a teenage boy lives two separate lives; one in a virtual reality and one in real life. Steven Spielberg is set to direct the theatrical version and is planned to release December of 2017.
In a nutshell, the story takes place in 2044 and follows a teenage boy, Wade Watts aka Parzival, into the world of virtual reality called the Oasis. Virtual reality is a way of life including work, education, socialization, and love. Upon his deathbed, the creator of Oasis, James Halliday, had one last quest for his users:
Solve the puzzles that he has hidden in the Oasis and the winner will receive his fortune, as stated in his will. The quest includes following riddles to find keys and completing daunting tasks to open hidden doors in the Oasis. After many years of obsessing over ‘80s pop culture and some research, Parzival finally solved the first riddle.
I spent my night speculating about which actor should be casted to portray each character in the movie version. Now, the real question is: Will there be a character to play the real-life character along with the avatar character?
I know that Artemis has been casted as Elle Fanning but I don’t approve. She is supposed to be chubby and not exactly beautiful but pretty in her own way. Fanning is tall, lanky and not a bit awkward like Artemis is in the novel. I hope the characters’ appearances don’t stray too far from the novel because us geeks can relate to characters in the novel and it would be a shame to crush our dreams.
Another question that has been floating around the internet is if they will make the story into a trilogy like the current successes “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.” The target audience’s age group will be the major deciding factor on this and will influence the overall production of the film.
Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of our (and maybe all) time. He created a good amount of the movies that were mentioned in the book, so I hope he will do the book justice. I think he picked up the movie not only because he can get rights to the use of the many products that were mentioned in the novel, but because it is something that he can really relate to and thinks the rest of the world should be able to see the story on the big screen.
I’m trusting you with my dreams Spielberg, don’t screw it up.
My picks for the cast include:
Parzival AKA Wade Watts – Dylan O’Brien or Logan Lerman
Artemis /Samantha Cook- Maisie Williams
Aech – Dave Franco
James Halliday – Steven Spielberg or Wil Wheaton
Nolan Sorrento – Kevin Bacon or Chris Pine
Ogden Morrow – Nathan Fillion or Bryan Cranston
I-R0k – Dane Deehan
