Tuesday, 12 January, 2016

Ben Mendelsohn in talks for Steven Spielberg's 'Ready Player One'

Mendelsohn Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One May Have Its Villain
David Chambers | 09 January, 2016, 00:43

Spielberg is now putting the finishing touches to The BFG, while Mendelsohn has been at work on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Olivia Cooke is already in place, and now Steven Spielberg has chosen his next cast member for Ready Player One.

Published in 2011, the novel is set in the virtual utopia known as the OASIS, in which a boy named Wade Watts devoted his life to solve puzzles hidden within in.

The guy has garnered a ton of buzz for his role in Netflix's Bloodlines series, and looks to be an excellent fit for the Ready Player One gig, assuming the deal pans out.

Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first. The puzzles are based on its creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and promise massive power and fortune to those who can unlock them. Mendelsohn is in early negotiations to play an executive for an Internet corporation that has designs on Oasis.

Cooke will play Sam, an ally and love interest to Wade, whose name in the virtual world is Art3mis.

The project is still searching for its male lead, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, Mendelsohn is in early negations to play the main antagonist of the film.

Ready Player One will beam moviegoers to a new reality in a way that the Oculus Rift can only dream when Spielberg's sci-fi flick opens on December 15, 2017. Readers of the book should be able to figure that out then, but regardless of who Mendelsohn is playing, you have to believe that he's going to make one hell of an impact in this adaptation.