Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Rhys, Bradley Whitford, Carrie Coon, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Tracy Letts, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Zach Woods. That is the astoundingly stacked cast of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Pentagon Papers film, “The Papers,” which is due out in time for Oscar season on December 22nd. And with a cast like that, “The Papers” must be the most exciting Spielberg project on the horizon, right?
Debatable. Because to many Spielberg fans, the only thing more exciting than Spielberg Oscar bait is a good old-fashioned Spielberg blockbuster, and we’ve got one of those on the way as well. “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s dystopian sci-fi novel of the same name, is currently in post-production and set for release in March of next year. It has an impressive cast including Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg, T.J. Miller, Olivia Cooke, and Tye Sheridan, and a high-concept premise about virtual-reality video-gaming or some such. “Ready Player One” seems poised to be, at the very least, a big deal.
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But, “Ready Player One” just lost a big name to “The Papers:” composer John Williams. Williams, who has scored all but two of Spielberg’s films thus far, was originally going to score “Ready Player One,” but, as the two projects have overlapping post-production schedules, the Oscar-winning composer has now left “Ready Player One” to focus solely on “The Papers.” Taking his place is Alan Silvestri, who has previously scored such classics as “Forrest Gump” and all three “Back to the Future” films.
Spielberg’s Amblin Productions put out a statement regarding the high-profile “Ready Player One” personnel shift: “Steven and John decided Alan Silvestri was the perfect choice for ‘Ready Player One’ since Steven has worked (as a producer) with Alan on the ‘Back to the Future’ films in the ’80s and Alan has scored other films for Steven’s Amblin and DreamWorks.”
“The Papers” already had one over on “Ready Player One”, which will feature neither Tom Hanks nor Meryl Streep. Now it’s poached Spielberg’s closest and most celebrated musical collaborator.
Still, somehow I still think “Ready Player One” will do better at the box office… [Variety]