Steven Spielberg Using Motion-Capture in 'Ready Player One'

Hamptonite Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated film Ready Player One will be filmed partially in motion-capture, according to star Tye Sheridan.

The actor told Collider, “We shot for the first seven, eight weeks in Mo-Cap. Everything that happens in The OASIS is all shot in motion capture.” Sheridan is referring, of course, to the virtual world in which many of the film’s events take place. Based on the novel by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One takes place in the near-future, when society spends most of its time inside OASIS, a digital universe where people play, hang out, have careers, go to school and more. The creator of OASIS, passes away, leaving behind an “easter egg” hidden in the game that holds the key to his vast fortune. Whoever finds the easter egg will inherit his fortune and ownership of OASIS. Wade Watts, a teenager who rarely logs out of OASIS, is the first to find the easter egg, which is only the first step in a treasure hunt that sends him on a journey across OASIS to find the rest of the clues.

The book is filled with pop culture and nostalgic references to the 1980s, including some of Spielberg’s work. Spielberg has confirmed that some of the references have been toned down for the film, likely due to possible licensing issues, but given that they’re so important to the book, they will have to be fairly prominent in the adaptation.

Sheridan estimates that about 60% of the film takes place inside OASIS. Spielberg has used motion-capture in the past, with The BFG and Tintin leaning heavily on the technology. Ready Player One, also starring Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, Olivia Cooke, T.J. Miller and Ben Mendelsohn, is set to open in theaters on March 30, 2018.