Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 27 March 2018
'Ready Player One' takes Spielberg back and to the future

By LINDSEY BAHR it's your choice what you
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In Er- would like to look at."
nest Cline's novel "Ready The production used cut-
Player One," the main char- ting-edge technology to
acter drives a DeLorean simulate the OASIS for the
because of "Back to the Fu- cast and crew with VR
ture," and uses a grail diary headsets that would give
because of "Indiana Jones everyone a 360-degree
and the Last Crusade." The view of what the virtual
films of Steven Spielberg world looked like. And the
loom large in the story lit- film itself is a mash-up of
tered with pop culture ref- past and present technolo-
erences. That the legend- gies, including motion cap-
ary filmmaker then ended ture, computer animation
up being the one to take and even film stock, which
Cline's futuristic-nostalgic Spielberg used to shoot the
vision to the big screen is a live-action sequences.
small Spielbergian miracle. "It was just a small little
"I hadn't read anything touch because I'm trying
that had triggered my to keep, you know film,
own imagination so viv- meaning the chemical, the
idly where I couldn't really chemistry of film, relevant
shut it off," said Spielberg, and I'm just trying, until they
who, with "Ready Player close the last lab and stop
One," out Thursday, returns In this March 16, 2018 photo, Tye Sheridan, from left, Oliva Cooke, Lena Waithe, Steven Spielberg, making raw stock, to shoot
Ben Mendelsohn, Hannah John-Kamen, Philip Khao, and Win Morisaki pose for a portrait at the
to the wide-eyed grand- interactive "Ready Player One" pop-up on Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, Calif. everything I can on film,"
scale blockbuster filmmak- Associated Press Spielberg said. "It also gave
ing that he made his name the real world a more gritty
with. The sci-fi spectacle cluding the teenage hero lance), who has promised Zak Penn would have to flavor because when you
with a reported $175 million Wade (Tye Sheridan), his wealth to whomever lose a few of his Spielberg- shoot digitally, it's much
production budget pres- spend their lives as avatars wins and finds the "Easter inspired jokes and ideas more like acrylic. And film
ents a near-future vision of (Wade's is a cooler version egg." that he'd written into the is more like oil. You get that
a dystopian society that of himself named "Parzival") It's because of Halliday, script before Spielberg blend between that world
has all but abandoned the in the virtual world of the who, like its author, came signed on to direct, but he of oil and the texture that
real world for an escapist OASIS — a VR game creat- of age in the 1980s, that the didn't mind. an oil painting has with the
virtual reality existence. ed by an eccentric genius, OASIS is chalk full of 80s nos- "It would have taken you film and you get the very
In 2045, most people, in- James Halliday (Mark Ry- talgia from Atari to Bucka- out of the narrative. He's smooth, almost antiseptic
roo Banzai. It's also why too iconic a director," Penn clarity of what the digital
Cline assumed that "Ready said. "You'd be sitting there world looks like."
Player One" would be im- thinking, 'Oh, this is from a Lena Waithe, who plays
possible to adapt. How Spielberg film.'" the tech-savvy Aech, said,
would anyone be able to But everything was on the "I love that he did that. The
secure all the rights? table, from the song Cline movie really represents
That it ended up being walked down the aisle to where cinema is going and
Spielberg doing the ask- (the Hall & Oats song "You where it all began, which is
ing helped a little, but Make My Dreams," which really beautiful."
producer Kristie Macosko plays during the credits) Cline's novel has already
Krieger is the one he credits to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it proved prophetic in the
for getting everything from nod to "Last Action Hero," digital space. He says com-
Chucky to the Iron Giant Penn's first movie which he panies like Oculus and
in the film. She spent three had wanted Spielberg to Google have copies on
years working with Warner direct. Penn, for his part, hand and, he's been told,
Bros. to obtain all the nec- had said "no" to a pro- give them to people who
essary clearances from posed reference and was come through the offices.
various studios. Some they surprised when he saw one And he thinks the movie,
didn't use, like the main in the final cut. Cline had which will play globally, will
"Star Wars" icons (although gone behind his back to have a more significant im-
you may spot an X-Wing or persuade the folks at ILM to pact. "The best thing that
R2-D2 in a few frames), and do it. could ever happen to a
some Spielberg just nixed Most of the references science fiction writer is to
himself, like the mothership amount to set-dressing, write something that helps
from "Close Encounters of packing every frame in the inspire the people who
the Third Kind." He didn't OASIS with eggs that would make it into a reality," Cline
want too many of his old take even the most eagle- said. "This movie could be a
movies in his new movie. eyed viewer multiple view- self-fulfilling prophecy."
"There comes a point when ings to catch. The OASIS, essentially, is not
I would have just had to "My philosophy from the that distant of a reality. It's
defer to someone else who very beginning was, the also something of a cau-
likes my movies and not story is out the front wind- tionary tale about the perils
make a movie about my shield and the pop culture of VR, or as, Spielberg said
movies," Spielberg said. references are out the side how, "too much of a good
It meant co-screenwriter mirror," Spielberg said. "And thing is too much."q