T.J. Miller Says His Character in READY PLAYER ONE is a Boba Fett Wannabe
One movie that I'm extremely excited about seeing is Steven Spielberg's feature film adaptation of Ernie Cline's sci-fi geek novel Ready Player One. During a recent interview with Fandango, we learn from T.J. Miller that his character is new to the story. He wasn't in the book and was created just for the film. We also learned that his character is a huge Star Wars fan, who wants to be Boba Fett. He explains:
“My character in the movie wants to be Boba Fett. Like that’s his hero, his idol, which isn’t far off for many Star Wars fans, myself included.”
The actor goes on to talk more about his character and his role in the story saying:
“I play i-R0k and basically I am a funny, or at least mildly amusing, Boba Fett. In the OASIS, I am a better player than Aech or Daito or any of those guys. I am sort of unequivocally the best bounty hunter, but I work freelance. While all the Sixers work for IOI and Sorrento, he has to commission me and I get an incredibly high fee to either find people and kill them or make them starve in the game.”
The story is set in a virtual world called Oasis and follows a teenager named Parzival (Tye Sheridan) who finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes after the reclusive and enigmatic founder (Mark Rylance) of the game dies and offers his fortune as the grand prize. Anything is possible in this virtual world. It's a place where people live out their dreams and fantasies through their avatars.
The characters Miller talks about, Aech and Daito, are known as gunters in the OASIS and they are on the hunt for the big prize. There's another group in the game known as Sixers, and they are players hired by a corporation (IOI) to find the prize for corporate gain. They two teams clash throughout the story. Ben Mendelsohn plays the leader of the Sixers.
Like any bounty hunter, he's not a good guy or a bad guy, he's just a guy for hire that will help either side do what needs to be done for a price. Oh yeah, Miller also impersonates the Boba Fett voice from the original trilogy to give the character that geek edge.
Miller is then asked if he could provide any other info on the film, and this is what he said:
"Basically, it looks like a video game when not in the real world. And because it’s Steven Spielberg, it looks better than any video game on the market. Because of his access and resources, Gears of War and fucking Call of Duty can’t even touch it. I think they’re inventing new technology for it."
Ready Player One opens March 30, 2018 and I can't wait to get a first look at the footage from it! I'm really hoping to be blown away by this movie because it involves everything that I love about being a geek.