Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ Recruits ‘Silicon Valley’ Star T.J. Miller
Few shows make me laugh likeSilicon Valleyand few people onSilicon Valleymake me laugh likeT.J. Millermakes me laugh. Although Miller has been working steadily since making his film debut in 2008’sCloverfield(he was the guy behind the camera), he’s finally come into the spotlight in the past few years. Those who don’t know him from the funniest show currently airing on television probably saw him as Weasel inDeadpoola few months ago, where he played an effective foil to Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson.
Still, all of that feels like prologue to being cast in aSteven Spielbergmovie. Miller has joined the ensemble of The Beard’s latest project,Ready Player One.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Miller will take on the role of “i-R0k,” an online troll in the forums for the massive virtual world where the bulk of the story takes place. An irritating internet commenter in a dystopian science fiction world sounds like a role Miller was destined to play.
Miller joins a cast that already includesTye Sheridan,Olivia Cooke,Simon Pegg,Ben Mendelsohn, and Spielberg’slatest muse,Mark Rylance. In other words,Ready Player Onewill star two of the more promising young actors around right now, a beloved geek icon, a brilliant character actor/newStar Warsvillain, one of the finest actors of all time (who just took home an Oscar a few years ago), and one of the funniest people around at the moment. That is one solid line-up.
Honestly, that’s the kind of cast that gives me faith inReady Player One, especially since I couldn’t bring myself to finishErnest Cline’s original novel. I expect (and hope) Spielberg will lean heavily on the the book’s impressive world-building and science fiction concepts and quietly ditch the overt (and eventually numbing) reliance on constant pop culture references,although the plot does require more than a few of them. If there is anyone who can carve a great movie out of this material, it’s the greatest populist filmmaker of the past forty years.
Ready Player Oneshould start shooting later this month for aMarch 30, 2018release date. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
