Ben Mendelsohn has developed a reputation for being really good at playing excellent villains who range from being mildly creepy and psychotic to terrifyingly creepy and psychotic, and it sounds like he may have found his next film to be creepy and psychotic in. According to Variety, Mendelsohn is “in early talks” to play the villain in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One. The book is about a kid in the future who is The Best at being nerdy, and he uses his nerdiness to become The Best at an online game thing called OASIS. Surprisingly, though, the villain isn’t some kind of super jock who eats dweebs and shoots footballs out of his eyes, it’s actually a businessman who works at an internet service provider that is trying to make money off of OASIS. He’s also probably a bit creepy and psychotic, or else having Ben Mendelsohn play him wouldn’t make any sense.
Assuming he gets the job, Mendelsohn will appear opposite Olivia Cooke, who is playing the female lead. The main kid has yet to be cast.