After months of searching and an open casting call, Steven Spielberg‘s Ready Player One adaptation has finally found its lead actor in indie star and soon-to-be blockbuster bait Tye Sheridan (Mud).
Sheridan is set to play the protagonist in Ernest Cline’s digital age fantasy novel, Wade Watts, one of the many players in Oasis, a virtual reality set up by a billionaire who, after his death, reveals that there are hidden easter-eggs in the game that will lead to his fortune, prompting Wade and countless others to do whatever it takes to win.
Another player in the game, and Wade’s eventual love interest, Samantha, will be played by Me and Earl and the Dying Girl‘s Olivia Cooke, while the corporate executive Nolan Sorrento, bent on using the game for ulterior motives, will be portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn (soon-to-be seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Cooke and Mendelsohn were both cast long before the lead role was decided, making the spot even more tricky for Warner Bros. and Spielberg to fill.
Although he is still building his career and his name within the industry, Sheridan has already proved to many moviegoers that he has what it takes to play the leading man. His first few roles saw him stealing some of the spotlight from heavy hitters like Matthew McConaughey and Nicolas Cage in the indies Mud and Joe. Last year he starred in his first teen (horror) comedy with Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and appeared in who’s who of young male indie actors in The Stanford Prison Experiment. Next up, he will be flexing his big studio muscles when he appears as a young Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Ready Player One is set for release in March of 2018. We will have more on the cast as the remaining roles are filled.
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