The open casting call is closed, and Steven Spielberg has his main player. Tye Sheridan, a veteran of Mud and Joe, will be Wade Watts in the adaptation of Ready Player One.
Written by Ernie Cline, the screenwriter behind Fanboys, the novel follows teenager Wade who likes to escape his dreary, dangerous real world by logging into Oasis, a globally networked virtual utopia where users lead idyllic alternate lives. When the game's eccentric, Steve Jobs-style billionaire creator dies, he offers up his fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Using his in-game avatar Parzival, Wade is pitted against powerful corporate foes and ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the Oasis and the real world, to reach the riches first.
Sheridan joins Ben Mendelsohn (playing Nolan Sorrento, the human and virtual face of the nasty corporate types), and Olivia Cooke, as a Canadian blogger who goes by the handle Art3mis.
Spielberg cast a wide net for this one, seeing thousands of actors through traditional agent-submitted calls and then opening things up to the world via website. But he liked what Sheridan did in his audition, had him sign a holding deal before the big open search, and was still convinced he was the man for the job after it was all over.
Most recently seen in Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, Sheridan next has X-Men: Apocalypse due here on May 19. Ready Player One should be with us on December 15 next year.