‘READY PLAYER ONE’ author signs mega deal for next novel ‘ARMADA’

Well then! Nary three days have passed since our own Rendar was lavishing rope all over the bust and buns of Ready Player One when this news comes out. The author of the aforementioned jam is currently the hotness around The Town, and he has been afforded a ridiculous advance for his next endeavor. At, to be paid for writing. The concept, the concept alone.

/Film:

Often there’s an entertainment story that doesn’t have an express movie angle, but we feel our readers should take notice anyway. This is one of those stories. In the movie world, most people know the name Ernie Cline because he wrote and conceived Fanboys, Kyle Newman’s tale of a group of friends breaking into Skywalker Ranch to see Star Wars Episode I. While the film isn’t particularly well-regarded (it surely has its fans but went through Hollywood hell) I’d be lying if I said that premise didn’t please my geeky desires.

Cline followed that idea with an even bigger and better one. That was Ready Player One, a futuristic tale stuffing social networks, the ’80s, video games, music and movies into an action-packed story about the race for the world’s biggest fortune. If you love the things we write about on this site, the book was written for you. Warner Bros.owns the movie rights and the project is still in development.

None of that is what this story is about. That’s all preamble to give context to the following info. Ernie Cline has been given a seven-figure advance for his next book,Armada. Story details are still secret but Variety says the story has “a high-concept hook that offers the ultimate wish fulfillment to every video game fan on the planet.”

Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, gave Cline the advance based on a twenty page treatment. The film rights will likely be shopped around Hollywood over the next week or so and are expected to be picked up fast.