Capitalizing on the hype machine that surrounded Sunday’s premiere of Spielberg’s latest film, Ready Player One also rented out an enormous building in the heart of South by Southwest to build even further excitement. Fans were literally placed into the fabled OASIS, allowed to run around a world of stacked trailer homes, lifesize Iron Giants and zero gravity night clubs. A Hot Topic pop-up shop, stocked to the brim with Funkos, vinyl key sets and an exorbitant amount of patches made sure that fans could take some of the RP1 world home with them.
Various pieces of 80’s paraphernalia were scattered in corners of comfortable sofas and record players. And, then the highlight of the build-out, for me especially, was a full replica of the hero DeLorean, complete with a flux capacitor and a movie-appropriate “Parzival” license plate. I definitely did not hold up the line with photos in a variety of poses to satiate my inner ten-year-old.
As an added bonus, my time at the activation was highlighted by a surprise appearance by the full cast of our main Gunters. Tye Sheridan and company held court with host Aisha Tyler (Archer) and delved into a very informal Q&A, covering everything from their auditions to their prior experience with Ernest Cline’s book (spoiler: not much).
Upstairs, a real life Stack was created, each mobile home housing impressive VR experiences (which, obviously, were very tough to accurately photograph). But it was a nice touch and an obvious addition to the already-impressive marketing push. The movie (already reviewed on Bleeding Cool) might not open to the general public until March 29, but for some lucky fans in Austin this weekend, the world has already gotten its first real look at living in the OASIS.
