When the worldwide box office totals for Avatar exceeded the GDP of most African nations, it became clear that movie studios were going to do everything they could to match its success. The 3D boom is already in full effect, with every major action film and its grandmother being converted in post-production, but with the exception, perhaps, of Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, no other film going into pre-production has tried using technology to the level that James Cameron did. Enter Ernie Cline's Ready Player One.

Though only a manuscript at this point, Random House has picked up Cline's story with plans to turn it into an Avatar-like film, THR reports. Described as a "young-adult sci-fi novel," the story takes place in the future where a virtual world called Oasis takes users out of their own world and places them in an alternate, virtual one. When the creator dies, however, he decides to leave his fortune in the virtual world, having players take part in a treasure hunt. Our protagonist, a teenager named Wade Watts, joins in the race and must out-maneuver powerful foes to get the prize. Cline is best known as the man who developed the story and wrote the screenplay for the ill-fated Fanboys.

Is he just going after the prize because he's greedy or is it because his grandmother is in the hospital and he needs to raise money for an experimental procedure? As the story stands, I'm not sure why an audience would cheer for Watts over his foes. All we can really hope for is that Cline isn't beset by the James Cameron disease and begins to care more about what the film will look like than how the narrative works.