With production scheduled to begin this summer, director Steven Spielberg has reunited with a recent Oscar winner for his adaptation Ready Player One. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Mark Rylance, who won an Oscar in February for his work in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, has signed on for a pivotal role in Ready Player One. As it turns out, though, the actor had to work out scheduling difficulties with another Warner Bros.' project, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.

Mark Rylance joined the cast of Dunkirk in December, but the studio had to work out scheduling complications for the actor to star in both Ready Player One and this WWII thriller. Filming is scheduled to begin on May 23 in France on Dunkirk, while Steven Spielberg is eyeing a June production start on Ready Player One, which recently shifted from a December 15, 2017 release date to March 30, 2018. It isn't known which of these projects Mark Rylance will shoot first, or if he will alternate between both movies at the same time.

The actor is slated to play James Donovan Halliday, the creator of OASIS, an enormously popular virtual reality world. Halliday is described as an "enigmatic figure," who is a cross between Steve Jobs and Howard Hughes. The story centers on a teenager named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), who becomes obsessed with this virtual reality world that allows players to live out their fantasies. After the game's creator suddenly dies, an elaborate treasure hunt is held within the Oasis world, with the winner emerging to take control of the entire company.

Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first. Olivia Cooke will play Sam, a Canadian blogger who is known in the Oasis world as Art3mis, and will become a love interest for the lead character. Ben Mendelsohn is playing the executive of an Internet company who is trying to take control of Oasis. Simon Pegg has also recently joined the cast as Orgen Morrow, who co-created Oasis with James Donovan Halliday.

Steven Spielberg is directing from a script by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline, who wrote the original novel the movie is adapted from. Mark Rylance is quickly becoming a go-to actor for director Steven Spielberg. Aside from last year's Bridge of Spies, the actor plays the title character in DreamWorks' The BFG, hitting theaters July 1, and he also recently signed on to star in the director's next project after Ready Player One, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. What do you think about Mark Rylance playing James Donovan Halliday in Ready Player One?