Spielberg Still Hasn’t Dropped Out Of READY PLAYER ONE

Ernie Cline's book Ready Player One truly captures the zeitgeist of nerd culture in the 2010s - all references to 80s garbage, profoundly badly written, coming from an aggressively male point of view, generally reeking of boring middle class white people with goatees - but I just cannot imagine why anybody thinks it would make a good movie. It would barely make a good episode of Family Guy. But a movie it shall be, and Warner Bros has dated said movie for December 15, 2017. 

The real news, though, is that this dating including Steven Spielberg at the helm of the film. Yes, Spielberg had been attached before, but I fully expected him to fall off the project by now (as he tends to do with big movies). It seems that Warner Bros is feeling bullish that Steve will stay, and that he'll direct this film after all. 

Why would he? I just don't get it. Beyond being terrible, Ready Player One is basically a long genuflection to the 1980s culture that Spielberg helped create. Directing an homage to himself feels far more masturbatory than I would ever expect from Spielberg, who has always struck me as a reasonable, almost humble (for a genius) guy. Beyond the fact that this is all but guaranteed to be one of the few bad Spielberg films, the idea of Spielberg praising his own era and his own influence would make me seriously rethink what I believe to be true about him.