Steven Spielberg returns to science fiction in 2017 with 'Ready Player One'

It's now official. Steven Spielberg will direct the film adaptation of Ernest Cline's novel, with Warner Bros, confirming a December 2017 release date. The legendary filmmaker is returning to his favorite genre after a 12-year hiatus.

Since the release of "War of the Worlds" in 2005, Spielberg has taken a step back from the genre that made him so popular in the 1980s. Although he has since directed a fourth installment in the "Indiana Jones" saga and launched a franchise based on the popular "Tintin" graphic novels, Spielberg has by and large concentrated his directing efforts on the past: "Munich," "War Horse," "Lincoln" and the upcoming "Bridge of Spies" (October 16, USA) are all based on historical events.

A futuristic yet nostalgic film

With "Ready Player One," Spielberg won't be completely turning his back on the past. While the Ernest Cline novel does take place in the near future, it is a veritable encyclopedia of 1980s pop culture, especially its video games, television shows and movies.

The novel, published in 2011, takes place in 2044, in a world devoid of resources due to climatic catastrophes. Wade Watts, like most of humanity, escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia. Like others, Wade dreams of discovering a virtual Easter Egg that lies concealed within one of thousands of virtual worlds by the OASIS's creator, the late James Halliday. Halliday stipulated in his will that the person who discovered the egg would inherit his entire estate, including management and control of the OASIS itself, a prize worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Spielberg, a fan of sci-fi literature

For his grand return to science fiction, the genre that cemented his reputation in the 1980s, Spielberg is once again drawing his inspiration from literature, as he does every time he makes a film in this genre. In 1993, he focused on Michael Crichton's work for "Jurassic Park," and again in 1997 for its sequel, "The Lost World." In the years that followed, he was inspired by the Brian Aldiss short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" for "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," by Philip K. Dick's short story "The Minority Report" for "Minority Report" and by H.G. Wells' novel "The War of the Worlds" for "War of the Worlds."

Considering how successful his first collaboration with Michael Crichton was, it's surprising that Spielberg never again dipped into the technothriller author's oeuvre. That should soon change though, as since June the director has been linked to the deceased author's "Micro," which was completed by Richard Preston and published in 2011.

Before delving into that, he will present "Bridge of Spies" later this year, "The BFG," adapted from the children's book by Roald Dahl, in July 2016, and "It's What I Do," which will star Jennifer Lawrence as a war photographer.