Having spent a career as a master storyteller and predicting future tech with eerie accuracy in Minority Report, Steven Spielberg felt like the perfect director for bringing Ernest Cline’s book, “Ready Player One,” to life. Strange as it might seem, he wasn’t the first pick for realizing Halliday’s Easter Egg Hunt. Instead, a younger filmmaker was considered for the gig, right before the up-and-comer director found himself in Hollywood movie jail. Before Spielberg picked up Cline’s book to adapt, Josh Trank was approached to direct “Ready Player One.” The offer came after talk began to swirl around town about Trank’s found-footage superhero film, “Chronicle,” which starred Michael B. Jordan and Dane DeHaan.
Having openly stated that video games were an immense influence in the making of his directorial debut (via IGN), it made for a perfect pairing between director and impending adaptation. Even so, according to GQ, Trank turned down the job twice before Spielberg signed on to the film in 2015. While there’s no doubt that Warner Bros. found a more than reasonable replacement, it could’ve been one of many other projects that were canned after Trank’s swift fall from grace. After earning praise from critics and audiences alike, Trank followed things up with what was an almost career-ending outing, and what many deem one of the worst comic book movies ever made.
Ready Player One could’ve been another casualty for Josh Trank
Upon release, Trank’s take on Marvel’s First Family with “Fantastic Four” was met with terrible reviews and an equally negative reaction from fans. Sat on Rotten Tomatoes with 9%, NME called it “a horribly botched reboot that squanders a talented young cast.” It was because of this that we wouldn’t see the return of Mister Fantastic and his family for a decade until “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which earned a far warmer reception. The fallout from the film brought Trank’s career to a grinding halt. A “Star Wars” movie involving Boba Fett, which he was set to direct, got shelved (via /Film), and the filmmaker wouldn’t see his name back in theaters until 2020 with the Tom Hardy-starring “Capone.”
As for Spielberg’s take on “Ready Player One,” the movie received a favorable response, thanks to its impressive handling of pop culture worlds colliding in a CGI extravaganza, delivered in that beloved Spielbergian style. Since then, news in 2024 revealed that an adaptation of Cline’s sequel, “Ready Player Two,” was in the works for the big screen, with a different director at the helm. Now, though, after a year of little news on the project, it’s safe to say that a return trip to the OASIS has been put on pause. Speaking of Mr. Spielberg, here’s our list of Steven Spielberg’s top films.
