Ernest Cline struck gold with his first novel, Ready Player One. Since its release in 2011, the nostalgia-laden trip through the echelons of geekdom has topped the New York Times bestseller list, and the big-screen adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, is set to hit theatres on March 29.
But Spielberg isn't the only legendary nerd that Cline has had the pleasure of getting to know. Cline has also befriended George R.R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire (which became HBO mega-hit Game of Thrones) and the delightfully dorky pair have been known to hang out in one of Cline's two DeLoreans.
We're not sure what the state of their friendship is now, however, after Cline made a particularly stinging faux-pas during a brunch with the notoriously meticulous writer, who has kept fans waiting for the still-unreleased sixth Ice and Fire book after the fifth, A Dance with Dragons, was released in 2011.
"I actually had breakfast with him once, in Santa Fe," Cline tells Exclaim! "I was in the middle of writing my second book and I was really stressed out about it. He said, 'How's that going?' And I said, 'Oh, it's so much pressure.' I went off for 15 minutes, forgetting who I was sitting with. I said, 'Oh, it's so much pressure to do something that's really popular.'
"He was playing the tiniest, tiniest violin for me."
Watch the Ready Player One trailer below.
But Spielberg isn't the only legendary nerd that Cline has had the pleasure of getting to know. Cline has also befriended George R.R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire (which became HBO mega-hit Game of Thrones) and the delightfully dorky pair have been known to hang out in one of Cline's two DeLoreans.
We're not sure what the state of their friendship is now, however, after Cline made a particularly stinging faux-pas during a brunch with the notoriously meticulous writer, who has kept fans waiting for the still-unreleased sixth Ice and Fire book after the fifth, A Dance with Dragons, was released in 2011.
"I actually had breakfast with him once, in Santa Fe," Cline tells Exclaim! "I was in the middle of writing my second book and I was really stressed out about it. He said, 'How's that going?' And I said, 'Oh, it's so much pressure.' I went off for 15 minutes, forgetting who I was sitting with. I said, 'Oh, it's so much pressure to do something that's really popular.'
"He was playing the tiniest, tiniest violin for me."
Watch the Ready Player One trailer below.
