Following the success of Ready Player One this weekend, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that author Ernest Cline’s other novel, Armada, is gearing up for the big screen as well. Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans, Flashpoint) has been tapped to pen the script for the adaptation, which is set up at Universal Pictures.
Armada was released four years after Ready Player One and tells the story of Zack Lightman, a gamer with dreams of something bigger than his mundane life and with hopes of something miraculous happening to him. He gets his wish after all as he’s chosen to save the universe after learning that the online flight simulator he plays, called Armada, isn’t just a game after all but a training tool for a real alien invasion. The novel infuses itself with plenty of pop culture references like Ready Player One (including the obvious ones like Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter, and Ender’s Game), while also embracing and subverting science fiction conventions.
Armada has been in development at Universal since 2012, three years before the novel was even published.
Ready Player One was first published in 2011 and debuted this past week to over $181 million at the global box office.
