It has been announced that
Sword Art Online creator Reki Kawahara and
One-Punch Man manga artist Yuusuke Murata will both be attending a very special fan event of Steven Spielberg's
Ready Player One sci-fi film. The
Sword Art Online director Tomohiko Ito, illustrator Yūji Kaida (Gundam model kits box art), the film's producer Donald De Line, and other yet to be announced special guests will also be attending the fan event on February 1st.
The fan event will be screening a brand-new video for the film and also handout lottery tickets to fans for a chance to win tickets to the film's Japanese premiere and backstage passes! Watch the official trailer for the film down below!
Ready Player One is based on Ernest Cline's original novel of the same name, it has been dubbed as the "holy grail of pop culture." The film's trailers have already featured many familiar faces such as Overwatch's Tracer, Street Fighter's Chun-Li and the original RX-78-2 Gundam, Kaneda's bike from Akira, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, King Kong, the boombox from Say Anything..., Speed Racer's Mach 5, Chucky from Child's Play, and The Iron Giant as well as many more to be seen.
The original novel featured a plethora of early Japanese video game and anime references, from Neon Genesis Evangelion to Toei's Spider-Man (written as Supaidaman in the book) live-action series. It will be interesting to see which of these very popular properties the Hollywood producers decided to shell out licensing costs to bring on the big screen.
Sadly the director has confirmed that Ultraman will not be hitting the big screen. Cline revealed in a recent interview that the tokusatsu hero will not be appearing due to licensing reasons.
What are your thoughts on the news? Do you think Ready Player One will be a big hit like it is hyped out to be? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments section below!