Steven Spielberg Plans on Cutting Steven Spielberg Movies Out of 'Ready Player One'

‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ (Everett)

The novel Ready Player One is filled with references to Steven Spielberg movies, but don’t expect its big screen adaptation to keep many of them — even though Spielberg himself is directing the movie.

Ernest Cline’s best selling sci-fi novel about a high-tech scavenger hunt set up by an ‘80s-obsessed mastermind in a dystopian future is loaded with references to the video games and movies that made the 1980s the birthplace of modern geekdom. With smashes such as the Indiana Jones franchise, E.T., Back to the Future, and The Goonies, Spielberg’s work as both director and producer is well represented in the best-selling book. Some filmmakers might have a ball referencing their own films, but Spielberg told several outlets last week that he planned on cutting his old flicks from his new one.

“I’m doing the whole pop culture thing. I’m just going to leave myself out of it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I can’t do that. Too self-referential.” In the same vein, he told USA Today, “I’m not making this movie to remind people of my ‘80s movies. I may leave most of them out!”

It’ll be a bummer for fans of the book to lose those references — and for the producers to lose those iconic titles — but the book has more than enough other '80s favorites to make up for their loss, with nods to everything from Atari and Buckaroo Banzai to The Dark Crystal and Tron.

The movie adaptation will begin shooting next year and is due for release in December 2017.