Steven Spielberg Talks About Indiana Jones 5 & Ready Player One

It looks like Steven Spielberg has two exciting films on the way. We already know that his next project is the film adaptation of Ernie Cline's best selling sci-fi novel Ready Player One, but first let's get Indiana Jones 5 out of the way. It's previously reported that Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm were planning to make a new Indy film at some point, but there's no clear date when the production would actually begin. And a couple of years ago, Harrison Ford expressed his interest in reprising his role, but no details have been released about the project, but it sounds like Steven Spielberg is interested in making it happen. While he and Tom Hanks were talking with Yahoo to promote his upcoming film Bridge of Spies, he briefly mentioned the possibility:

"We've gotta figure this out because now, Tom is tied with Harrison Ford: Harrison and I did four movies, Tom and I have done four movies. Now I'll probably do an Indy 5 with Harrison, [so] it'll be five for Harrison, four for Tom."

The Indiana Jones franchise is too good for Spielberg to let go; He'll probably pass it to someone else in the near future, but with Ford still in good shape and the director still making memorable films, I don't why he'd pass up the chance to work on a new Indiana Jones film. That's good to know that he's intersted in making that, but sadly, his comment didn't confirm any details from Lucasfilm or Disney, so we'll just have to wait and hope that it'll happen within a few years.

But before he starts working on that, he'll direct Ready Player One, which follows a gamer in a quest for a virtual reality easter egg that will unlock the massive inheritance of the game's creator, and it's loaded with references to 1980s pop culture — including nods at Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Goonies, Indiana Jones, and classic video games — leaving many to wonder how Spielberg would include references in his films. In an interview with USA Today, he says he might avoid showing references to his 80's films:

Spielberg says it's "very trippy" to be an influence on himself in a way, "but I'm not making this movie to remind people of my ‘80s movies. I may leave most of them out!"

I can't wait to see how Spielberg will pack those nostalgic geek references in his film. Spielberg is intersted in what the film has to say about our society:

"[Ready Player One is] a crystal ball into exactly what is going to be happening not in 30 or 40 years but in between 5 and 10 years from now, where a virtual world becomes almost like a drug of choice and where we are spending more time in a nonorganic space than we are breathing and eating and interacting in real life." ...
"This movie is going to show why it's interesting not living in the real world but what we're missing by not. It's a cautionary tale but it's also a big rockin' adventure movie, too."

The novel, hands down, was one of the best science ficiton books I've read in the last century. I've enjoyed its audio version with Wil Wheaton's voice as the narrator. I highly recommend it, especially to readers who are enthusiastic about video games. If you're a fan of the anime Sword Art Online, I think you'll enjoy Ready Player One more.

You can watch the book trailer from Crown Publishing below:

Ready Player One has cast Olivia Board as the female lead, and the film will be released in theaters December 15, 2017.