Ernest Cline | |
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 Cline at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con | |
| Born | Ernest Christy Cline March 29, 1972 Ashland, Ohio, U.S. [1] |
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Ernest Christy Cline (born March 29, 1972) is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet, and screenwriter. He wrote the novels Ready Player One , Armada , and Ready Player Two and co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Cline was born and raised in Ashland, Ohio, the son of Ernest Cline and Faye Imogene Cline. [2] [3] As a youth in the 1970s and 1980s, Cline was "addicted to video games and movies," especially Star Wars , the movies of John Hughes, and the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons . He worked in information technology in his twenties and worked on screenwriting during his spare time. [2]
Cline co-wrote the screenplay for Fanboys , based on a storyline he had developed in the late 1990s while his mother was dying of cancer. Cline shot some low-budget scenes himself and shared his screenplay draft with Harry Knowles, whose connections in the film industry helped Cline get the film produced. The final film was co-written by Adam F. Goldberg and directed by Kyle Newman. It was finally released in 2009 after reshoots, re-edits, and delays. Cline later recalled that the film "changed my whole life. Fanboys is my first real original screenplay, and it got made." [4]
From 1997 to 2001, Cline performed his original work at Austin Poetry Slam venues. He was the Austin Poetry Slam Champ in 1998 and 2001. Cline also competed on the Austin Poetry Slam Teams at the 1998 Austin National Poetry Slam and the 2001 Seattle National Poetry Slam. [5] [6] His most popular spoken-word pieces include "Dance, Monkeys, Dance," "Nerd Porn Auteur," and "When I Was a Kid." [7] [8] Cline subsequently reworked "Dance Monkeys Dance" into a faux educational filmstrip, which became a popular viral video that has now been translated into 29 different languages. [9]
In 2001, Cline self-published a chapbook collection of his spoken-word writing, The Importance of Being Ernest, and released an album, The Geek Wants Out. In the fall of 2013, Write Bloody Publishing published a new edition of The Importance of Being Ernest with new cover art by Gary Musgrave and new interior illustrations by Len Peralta.[ citation needed ]
In June 2010, Cline sold his first novel, Ready Player One , a book that takes place in a dystopian 2040s. The book was sold in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House). [10] The film rights to the novel were sold the following day, to Warner Bros., with Cline co-writing the screenplay. [11] Ten months later, with the hardcover release coinciding with the paperback release, Cline revealed on his blog that both the paperback and hardcover editions of Ready Player One contain an elaborately hidden Easter egg. This clue formed the first part of a series of staged video gaming tests, similar to the plot of the novel. Cline also revealed that the competition's grand prize would be a 1981 DeLorean. The prize was awarded in 2012. [12] The paperback is currently in its 17th printing.
Cline's second novel, Armada , was released on July 14, 2015, by Crown Publishing Group. [13] In December 2015 the film rights to Armada were sold to Universal Pictures for a seven-figure sum. [14]
His third novel, Ready Player Two was announced in August 2015 and released on November 24, 2020 as a sequel to Ready Player One. [15] [16] As of 2020, a film adaptation of the novel was in early development. [17]
His fourth novel, Bridge to Bat City was announced in June 2023 with a planned release by Little, Brown and Company in April 2024. [18] It will be Cline's first children’s novel and is described as a “'mostly true tall tale' about a recently orphaned young girl named Opal B Flats, who forms an unexpected friendship with a music-loving colony of bats and helps them find a new home against all odds."
In January 2024, it was announced that Cline has partnered with tech company Futureverse Studios to launch the Readyverse, “a multi-world, multi-IP, interoperable open metaverse experience for mass consumers.” [19] Readyverse will feature licensed digital props and other intellectual property from director Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One through a deal with distributor Warner Bros. Readyverse also holds the rights to Cline’s other novels (including Ready Player Two) as well as his future works. [20]
From 2003 to 2013 Cline was married to author Susan Somers-Willett, with whom he has one daughter. [21] [22]
In 2016, he married poet/nonfiction writer Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, whom he met at the 1998 National Poetry Slam and began dating in 2013. [3] They have one daughter. [23]
Cline's all-time favorite video game is the arcade classic Black Tiger , [24] which features prominently in the plot of Ready Player One.
Ready Player One series:
Standalone:
Steven Allan Spielberg, is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director in history. He is the recipient of many accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, and four Directors Guild of America Awards, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Fanboys is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Kyle Newman, and starring Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, and Kristen Bell. The story follows a group of Star Wars fans who head on a road trip to Skywalker Ranch to steal a rough cut of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) for their dying friend. The Weinstein Company released it in the United States on February 6, 2009.
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Edward Ernest "Judge" Reinhold Jr. is an American actor who is best known for his work in Hollywood films during the 1980s. He has starred in several popular films such as Stripes (1981), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), and Ruthless People (1986). He has co-starred in all of the films in the Beverly Hills Cop and The Santa Clause franchises.
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Craig O'Neil Grant, also known as Craig muMs Grant and muMs da Schemer, was an American poet and actor best known for his role as Arnold "Poet" Jackson on the HBO series Oz.
James V. Hart is an American screenwriter and author. He is known for his literary adaptations, such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Hook.
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is an American nonfiction writer and poet.
The Austin Poetry Slam (APS) is one of the longest running poetry venues in Texas. Founded in 1994 by Wammo of the Asylum Street Spankers and helmed for 15 years by former Poetry Slam, Inc. president, Mike Henry, Austin Slam is renowned for memorable and often raucous performances by many of the best poets in the slam poetry world. Austin Slam is best known nationally for hosting the National Poetry Slam (NPS) in 1998, 2006, & 2007, and for Austin teams' national finals stage performances in 1996, 2003, & 2008.
Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune. Cline sold the rights to publish the novel in June 2010, in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group. The book was published on August 16, 2011. An audiobook was released the same day; it was narrated by Wil Wheaton, who was mentioned briefly in one of the chapters. In 2012, the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2011 Prometheus Award.
Tye Kayle Sheridan is an American actor. He is known for playing the young Scott Summers / Cyclops in the X-Men film series (2016–2019) and for his starring role in the science fiction film Ready Player One (2018).
Mirage Men is a 2013 documentary film directed by John Lundberg, written by Mark Pilkington and co-directed by Roland Denning and Kypros Kyprianou. Mirage Men suggests there was conspiracy by the U.S. military to fabricate UFO folklore in order to deflect attention from classified military projects. It prominently features Richard Doty, a retired Special Agent who worked for AFOSI, the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigation.
Ready Player One is a 2018 American science fiction action film based on Ernest Cline's novel of the same name. The film was co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Cline and Zak Penn, and stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance. The film is set in 2045, where much of humanity uses the OASIS, a virtual reality simulation, to escape the real world. A teenage orphan finds clues to a contest that promises ownership of the OASIS to the winner, and he and his allies try to complete it before an evil corporation can do so.
Armada is a science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, published on July 14, 2015 by Crown Publishing Group. The story follows a teenager who plays an online video game about defending against an alien invasion, only to find out that the game is a simulator to prepare him and people around the world for defending against an actual alien invasion.
The following is a list of unproduced Steven Spielberg projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Steven Spielberg has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in "development hell" or were officially canceled, some were turned over to other production teams, and still others never made it past the speculative stage.
Masters of the Air is a 2024 American war drama miniseries created by John Shiban and John Orloff for Apple TV+. It is based on the 2007 book of the same name by Donald L. Miller and follows the actions of the 100th Bomb Group, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit in the Eighth Air Force in eastern England during World War II. The series serves as a companion to Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010). It is the first series to be produced by Apple Studios in cooperation with Playtone and Amblin Television and stars Austin Butler, Callum Turner and Anthony Boyle as part of an ensemble cast. The series consists of nine episodes.
Ready Player Two is a 2020 science fiction novel by American author Ernest Cline. It is the sequel to his 2011 debut novel Ready Player One. Plans for a Ready Player One sequel were first announced in 2015, though Cline did not begin writing the book until late 2017. Cline attributes further developments to the critical and financial success of the film adaptation of the first novel released in 2018. The story follows Wade Watts who, after winning control of the OASIS, discovers an advanced virtual reality headset and subsequently a new quest for a mysterious prize.
Ready Player One is a 2018 American science fiction action film based on Ernest Cline's novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Cline. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance.
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