According to the Hollywood Reporter, Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) is in talks to join the cast of Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated sci-fi film Ready Player One. Tye Sheridan (Mud), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), and Ben Mendelsohn (Exodus: Gods and Kings) are already on board to star.
Based on Ernest Cline’s best-selling YA novel set in a dystopian 2044, the story centers on teenager Wade Owen Watts (Sheridan) who plugs into a virtual reality game called Oasis. The game was created by a billionaire who, after his death, reveals that there are hidden riddles in the game which, if solved, can lead to fortune. Watts races against competitors willing to kill in order to win the game and claim the prize. His love interest, Samantha Evelyn Cook (Cooke), is also a competitor in the virtual world. Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn) is a villainous executive for an internet corporation with ulterior designs for Oasis. Pegg would play Orgen Morrow, co-creator of Oasis.
Director Spielberg is producing the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow pic via his Amblin Partners, along with Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Dan Farah. Cline, Eric Eason, and Zak Penn will write the screenplay.
Actor, writer and comedian Pegg played Unkar Plutt, the stingy junk dealer, in last year’s mega-blockbuster Star Wars VII – The Force Awakens. He will reprise his role as Scotty in Star Trek Beyond – which he also co-wrote – opposite Chris Pine (The Finest Hours) and Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), opening July 22nd.
Ready Player One will start shooting in June. The film bows on March 30, 2018.
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