Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ Casting Female Lead
Steven Spielberg’s recently announced big screen adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One is in the early stages of casting its female lead. The three known front-runners include Elle Fanning (Maleficent), Olivia Cooke (Me, Earl and the Dying Girl) and Lola Kirke (Mistress America, Gone Girl). There are reportedly more actresses in consideration who are not yet identified, according to The Wrap.
The actresses are testing for the role of Art3mis, who is in the Oasis in-game avatar of Samantha Cook. In the novel, she becomes the object of protagonist Wade Watts’s affections, along with the main narrative of racing against other players in the virtual Oasis to solve puzzles and claim an invaluable prize.
As video games become a bigger and bigger industry and medium and as society keeps grappling with the social issues attached to games, this movie is going to become all the more important. No casting buzz yet on who will play Watts. Olivia Cooke is also reportedly in the running for the female lead in Star Wars Episode 8. If I had a choice between the two, I know I’d pick Star Wars in a minute. But we’ll see.
Spielberg himself is currently working on Bridge of Spies and The BFG. Village Roadshow Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures are reportedly doing as much casting and preproduction work as they can to get the ball rolling once Spielberg can devote his principal attention to Ready Player One. We expect to enter the world of Ready Player One December 15th, 2017.
