American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Ernest Cline. It’s 2044, the world is gripped by an energy crisis, the primary escape for most people is the OASIS, a virtual universe, accessed with a visor and haptic gloves. It functions both as an MMORPG and as a virtual society, with its currency being the most stable currency in the world.

Art-directing real-time Picture Vehicles cars, it was a mind-bending project, smashing-up ‘aging’ new cars to look like future ‘beaters’, held together with various futuristic junk in a post-apocalyptic world. Shot at leavesden studios, the work entailed some interesting examples of icons we could not use for set-design (because of Intellectual Property law), and yet the book was wholly/unapologetically written on the basis of intertextual (derived) visuals and script elements. And example is the Monty Python quotes, so prevalent in the book and necessarily absent from the film. I wrote an essay on this, which can be found HERE. Leavesden Studios London.