Elle Fanning, Olivia Cooke, and Lola Kirke Testing For Spielberg's READY PLAYER ONE

Steven Spielberg has Bridge of Spies out this year, and will next direct the Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG. But it's the movie he's scheduled to take on after that which has the geek community excited: he's directing Ready Player One, a film adaptation of Ernie Cline's popular novel. Here's the synopsis for those who haven't read it:

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.   

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

Sounds pretty awesome, right? The Wrap has an idea of who is competing for the female lead, a VR avatar named Art3mis who is also hunting for Halliday's Easter egg. Elle Fanning, Olivia Cooke, and Lola Kirke (pictured above, left to right) are all testing for the role along with two other mystery actresses. Fanning is probably the most familiar to general audiences, having appeared in Maleficent and Super 8 (which was produced by Spielberg), and Cooke had her breakout performance in the Sundance hit Me and Earl and The Dying Girl earlier this year (she also stars on Bates Motel). Kirke popped up in Gone Girl and starred in Noah Baumbach's indie film Mistress America.

Cooke is also on the shortlist for Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII, but it remains to be seen if she could conceivably star in both projects since Ready Player One hits theaters on December 15th, 2017 and Episode VIII arrives on May 26th, 2017. Seems like she'd have a heck of a busy year next year if she were to score both roles.

Also, it's worth noting that Variety writer Justin Kroll has heard that Jurassic World and The Kings of Summer star Nick Robinson is on Spielberg's radar for the male lead, which makes sense considering Spielberg's involvement with him on Jurassic World.

Those of you who've read Cline's book: who do you think would make the best Art3mis, and is Robinson a good fit for Wade?