Ready Player One (RPO) was one of the most anticipated presences at the Anaheim Convention Center, during WonderCon, this past weekend (March 23-25).
The movie, opening March 29, had two events at the convention.
At 10:30am, on Saturday, Warner Brothers Pictures hosted an autograph signing featuring cast members and creatives from the film…
Though many RPO fans went into WonderCon Saturday morning, feeling dejected having not been selected in the new autographs online lottery (more on this in a later blogpost), several vigilant fans WERE able to successfully infiltrate the RPO autograph signing!
The autograph signing was attended by Tye Sheridan (Parzival), Philip Zhao (Sho), Lena Waithe (Aech), Olivia Cooke (Art3mis), Win Morisaki (Daito), Ben Mendelsohn (Sorrento), Screenwriter Zak Penn and Author Ernest Cline.
Each of the cast members and creatives engaged with autograph seekers and seemed genuinely happy to be there. And fans lucky enough to attend the signing seemed EVEN MORE happy as they chatted and walked away with autographed poster SWAG!
At 12:25pm, on Saturday, Warner Brothers hosted the cast and creatives in a 45 minute-long panel/Q&A…
At San Diego Comic Con, because of the need to devote several hours to line-up, fans of a particular property usually have to choose between trying to get autographs OR seeing the panel for that property. Fortunately, because of the Anaheim Arena’s huge capacity (7,500), there’s typically enough seats and enough audience turn-over to accommodate hundreds (possibly thousands) of new audience members at the start of panels.
As a result, fans who attended the RPO autograph signing could also make it into the Arena for the RPO panel!
During the event, panel members reflected on their time working on the film, and each had humorous anecdotal stories of being star-struck by Director Steven Spielberg.
It was a bit disappointing that the panel didn’t include never-before-seen footage from the film. However, it’s understandable, considering many scenes in this movie contain spoilers… and fans will probably be better-off experiencing it for the first time while viewing the complete film.
On a personal note, I had a great time at the signing and panel!
During the signing, I was able to confirm with Cline that he has begun work on a RPO sequel, and he made a humorous joke about promising to be finished before R.R. Martin’s next Game of Thrones book!
And the events had awesome synchronicity for me, when Tye Sheridan shared with the panel audience how very impressed he was with Lena Waithe’s performance- given it was her first film. …Something he had just became aware of earlier in the day, after hearing me confirm this fact, while chatting with Lena during the autograph signing!
Other than the Los Angeles, red-carpet premier (March 26)… WonderCon was the last BIG stop for the RPO marketing machine!
And in only a few days, fans will finally be able to experience Cline’s universe as imagined by Spielberg!
Thanks to my love of SWAG, I found RPO and I’ll be among the masses entering the Oasis!
So should you!!!