by: S. Scott Stanikmas

When it was announced that Steven Spielberg would helm the film adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One, fans got giddy. After all the book is chock full of choice 80’s references, including a multitude of Spielberg’s works. So who better to treat the project with the love and care it deserves than someone who gets a ton of love in it?

But that might not be the case. Speaking to USA Today about the film, the director said that he might nix the many references to his work, saying that it was “very trippy” to pretty much direct a love letter to himself. He said that he’s not here “to remind people of my 80s movies” but to send another message.

Spielberg feels like the book, and hopefully his movie will feel like viewing “a crystal ball into exactly what is going to be happening not in 30 or 40 years but in between five and ten years from now, where a virtual world becomes almost like a drug of choice and where we are spending more time in a nonorganic space than we are breathing and eating and interacting in real life.”

While he wants to show us that living outside the real world is fun sometimes there are a multitude of things we miss by checking out of real life as well. But it won’t be one big schmaltzy PSA.

“It’s a cautionary tale but it’s also a big rockin’ adventure movie, too,” Spielberg said.

With Olivia Cooke already signed on to star, Ready Player One is set to hit theaters on December 15, 2017.