Tye Sheridan is to play the lead role of Wade Watts in Steven Spielberg's 'Ready Player One'.
Tye Sheridan
Sheridan will join Ben Mandelson, who plays Nolan Sorrento, and Olivia Cooke, who will portray a Canadian blogger named Sam who goes by the handle Art3mis in the online world and is Wade's love interest.
The highly-anticipated movie is based on the 2011 dystopian novel of the same name by Ernest Cline, and the plot follows teenager Wade who spends his time in a virtual world known as the Oasis.
When the eccentric founder of Oasis dies, Wade uses his in-game avatar Parzival to join a treasure hunt to win a huge prize left by the inventor, but his life is threatened when he begins to uncover the secrets of the artificial utopia and is pitted against powerful corporate foes and ruthless competitors who will do anything in Oasis and the real world to reach the prize first.
Tye - who has previously worked alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Nicholas Cage and John Travolta - beat thousands of actors to the coveted role.
Spielberg was reportedly so impressed with his audition for 'Ready Player One' that he made Tye sign a holding deal on the spot, and this was followed through by a firm offer of the part when the global casting call had finished.
Tye will be back on the big screen on May 19, as a young Cyclops in 'X-Men: Apocalypse'.
'Ready Player One' is scheduled for release on December 15, 2017.
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