Steven Spielberg appeared at Comic-Con on Saturday to debut the first trailer for “Ready Player One”, his upcoming feature set within the world of virtual reality, and if the crowd response to the trailer is any indication he’s got another hit on his hands.
According to Associated Press, Spielberg received a standing ovation from the crowd of approximately 6,500, while the audience cheered enthusiastically when the trailer’s first images of a dystopian future city appeared on screen. The cheers were even bigger, reports AP, when The Iron Giant made a brief appearance.
Spielberg was joined by stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, T.J. Miller and Ben Mendelsohn for the panel, which also included Ernest Cline, author of the novel upon which the film is based.
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“Ready Player One” follows teenager Wade Watts (Sheridan), a gamer who embarks on a high-stakes treasure hunt in “Oasis”, an all-encompassing VR video game bursting with po-culture references, the creation of an eccentric game designer (Oscar winner Mark Rylance).
“What made me want to tell the story more than anything else, was the kind of world 2045 gives to people, which is so dystopian,” said Spielberg during the panel, reports The Hollywood Reporter. “People are leaving the country and all of a sudden virtual reality gives you a choice, gives you another world to exist in. And you can do anything in that world. Anything you can possibly imagine … that interaction between real life and virtual life, by the third act of this movie is virtual non-existent.”
“Ready Player One” is set to debut in March 2018.
