I just finished reading Ernest Cline's Armada, his first book after his amazing debut novel Ready, Player One. And while this second book wasn't quite as amazing as his first, I did enjoy it. But while reading the afterword, I was reminded that Steven effing Spielberg has signed on to direct the motion picture adaptation of Ready, Player One. I might ordinarily have been skeptical of the ability of such a book to become a legit movie, but Spielberg at the helm drastically increases the chances of us getting a good film.
It seems to me though that the biggest issue with making that book into a film is getting the rights to all the properties mentioned in the book. I can't imagine how they'll do it. I mean, Lego Movie showed us that you can do a lot in that department - they had sports figures, Lord of the Rings characters, DC Comics characters, and... I think there are more but I can't think of them at the moment. But in order to do Ready Player One the right way, they'll need so much more. They won't just need that Lich in the Tomb of Horrors™ playing Joust™. They won't just need to re-construct the set of Blade Runner. They're going to need to show numerous scenes of Matthew Broderick in Wargames, and re-create some of them. They'll need to use a ton of eighties music, recreate the John-Cusack-holding-up-the-boombox scene from Say Anything, and feature Mecha-Godzilla™ in a climactic battle. There's a lot of intellectual property to get ahold of here.
I'm sure they can slide on some. I'm sure they can use offhand Star Wars references and print "Rooney Eats It!" on the side of an arcade machine without running afoul of copyright lawsuits. But the movie soundtrack is going to need to be more impressive than the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy, and they're going to need to drop more cash on licensing than on actors. For that reason, I imagine they'll stay away from recognizable stars. I feel like they should choose someone notable to do a cameo as Halliday at the movie's outset (Mark Hamill or Brent Spiner would be perfect) and then have every other actor be unknowns.
We'll still have references to The Pepsi Challenge, Captain Kangaroo, Schoolhouse Rock, G-Force, and dozens of others to contend with. The full list of references in Ready Player One is insane.