Ready Player One

Ready Player One is a 2018 American science fiction action film based on Ernest Cline's novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Cline. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance. The original score was composed by Alan Silvestri, rather than Spielberg's usual collaborator John Williams. Ready Player One was the third of Speilberg's films since 1974 not to be scored by Williams, after The Color Purple (1985) and Bridge of Spies (2015). The score album titled Ready Player One (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released by WaterTower Music on March 30, 2018. The same day, a compilation album titled Ready Player One (Songs from the Motion Picture) was also released, featuring incorporated songs performed by various artists. Background and production On June 9, 2016, John Williams who received the AFI Life Achievement Award by Steven Spielberg, had stated that he will be scoring for Spielberg's Ready Player One. However, a year later, Williams exited from the project, in favor of scoring The Post (2017), another Spielberg film, which had similar post-production schedules as Ready Player One. Alan Silvestri took over the project as a composer. Silvestri had felt working with Spielberg as "intimidating" on regards of his regular collaboration with Williams. Irrespective of the film's futuristic setting in 2045, Silvestri did not want a futuristic sound, as it might feel "dated" or "emotionally hollow", but he felt that the score was all about "playing on the emotion of the characters and playing up the action, which has a very timeless feeling". Silvestri could not provide demo score on the piano as Williams did, hence Spielberg sent an early-cut of the film and had scheduled a full-day orchestra session, after The Post's shooting completed and let him to write the score with total freedom. The recording of the score, began in mid-2017 at the Sony Scoring Stage in Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, California. Spielberg's supervised the first day recording of the film's music, and impressed with Silvestri's composition. The brass fanfare conducted for an early scene, became the film's main theme, which Spielberg had approved. The same day, Spielberg had recorded thirty minutes of music for the film, and much of the recording included in the final score.