No Steven Spielberg-'Star Wars' Showdown: Warners Moves Director's 'Ready Player One' Away From 'Episode VIII'
Steven Spielberg (AP)
By Borys Kit
Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Ernie Cline sci-fi novel, has backed away from Star Wars: Episode VIII.
Warner Bros., the studio behind the Spielberg tentpole, has moved his movie from Dec. 15, 2017 to March 30, 2018.
Earlier this month, Disney moved the Star Wars sequel from Memorial Day weekend in 2017 to Dec. 15 of that year, pitting the box-office franchise behemoth against what is expected to be a grand Spielberg sci-fi extravaganza.
The movie is set in a virtual world called Oasis, in which a teenager finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes after the game’s founder dies and offers his fortune as the grand prize.
Olivia Cooke and Ben Mendelson have so far been cast in the movie.
The movie will now open on Easter weekend, with the studio planting the movie after the Winter Olympics and before the commencement of the World Cup, held in Russia.
In other Warner release news, the studio has slated an untitled event movie for March 2, 2018 and has moved another mystery movie, this one based on its DC properties, from March 23, 2018 up a week, to March 16, 2018. Sources say the DC movie is the Flash solo project.
Also being dated is an untitled tentpole project from New Line for April 20, 2018. Details were no revealed but the movie could be in the vein, or a sequel to, New Line’s Dwayne Johnson hit San Andreas.
