Earlier this year we learned that critically acclaimed director Steve Spielberg would helm the book to film adaptation of Ready Player One. Now, the movie has a release date.

Hop into your virtual reality gear and start the countdown clock in your dashboard — the Ready Player One movie will be released on December 15, 2017.

That leaves roughly two years for the film to come together — a pretty quick turnaround for an adaptation that is going to require a lot of visual effects and a lot more copyright clearances.

Ready Player One and Spielberg have yet to select who’ll play the film’s lead character Wade Watts. We also don’t know how Spielberg is planning on executing this adaptation, but we hope it’s as close to the book as possible. The novel’s success stems from the incredibly detailed storytelling and all of the fun pop culture references. Oh, and the author really makes you hate the enemy.

Those who go into the movie are going to very high expectations. It’ll be interesting to see if Spielberg and Warner Bros. can not only pull off a great adaptation, but get permission to use the countless classic video games and pop culture references that are found in Ernest Cline’s beloved book.

If you haven’t read Ready Player One, we highly recommend it. Grab it here on Amazon! Cline recently released his second novel, Armada, which is another science fiction story peppered with pop culture references.

Do you think Spielberg will be able to pull off ‘Ready Player One’?

And who do you think should play Wade? And Art3mis?

Watch this space for more news about the adaptation.