Jul 23, 2017

Trailer: "The Iron Giant" and "Akira" take on roles in Steven Spielberg's "Ready Player One"

If virtual reality needed a jolt to excite the masses, it's unlikely to find a better promotional pitch than Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg's pop culture-soaked virtual reality dystopia that launched its first trailer at Comic-Con San Diego on Saturday.

Based on Ernest Cline's bestselling 2011 novel of the same name, the vfx-driven film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse:

The film draws many of its plot points from pop culture, and the trailer highlights Brad Bird's The Iron Giant and the bike from Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira as story elements.

ILM is the lead vfx house on the film which, judging from its first teaser trailer, looks to be hugely driven by visual effects and animation.

Ready Player One will be released in U.S. theaters by Warner Bros. on March 30, 2018.