Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the best-selling novel Ready Player One appears to be moving forward at a good clip based on the first unofficial photos and video from the set of the production, which found their way online this week.
While the shots from Birmingham, England, don’t reveal too much about the cast of characters in the film, they do offer a taste of the grimy, gritty world that protagonist Wade Watts inhabits when he’s not living a virtual existence in the digital universe known as OASIS.
Posted to Twitter by local arts and entertainment outlet I Choose Birmingham, the photos and video feature various locations around Birmingham that are in the midst of being transformed into a grimy, dystopian city where people live in trailers stacked high into the sky and much of the world lives, learns, and escapes their grim reality by way of a virtual utopia.
@bbcmtd Spielberg's 'Ready Player One' starts shooting in Digbeth pic.twitter.com/bwPO00UQnl
— I Choose Birmingham (@ichoosemag) August 16, 2016
Film base in Digbeth @bbcmtd …Spielberg spotting continues but it's very quiet here pic.twitter.com/lXtbUjklDX
— Satnam Rana (@SatnamRana) August 17, 2016
Token video anyone? Digbeth becoming a movie set #ReadyPlayerOne pic.twitter.com/tf6sd134NJ
— I Choose Birmingham (@ichoosemag) August 16, 2016
More token video? Ohio registrations on dystopian US Postal trucks #ReadyPlayerOne pic.twitter.com/PkzenxdFlg
— I Choose Birmingham (@ichoosemag) August 16, 2016
Directed by Spielberg and based on Ernest Cline’s popular novel, Ready Player One casts X-Men: Apocalypse actor Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts, one of many people caught up in an elaborate treasure hunt in the digital realm of OASIS that will give the winner full control of the virtual universe. Competing against fellow treasure hunters and a sinister corporation looking to monetize OASIS, Wade must use his encyclopedic knowledge of the OASIS creator’s favorite era of pop culture, the 1980s, in order to uncover the ultimate prize.
Along with Sheridan in the lead role, Ready Player One also stars Olivia Cook (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), Simon Pegg (Star Trek), T.J. Miller (Deadpool), and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). The script for the film was penned by Zak Penn (The Avengers) and Eric Eason (Manito), as well as Cline.
Ready Player One is scheduled to hit theaters March 30, 2018.