From Robopocalypse to Harvey and numerous others, Steven Spielberg has been known to latch on to a movie and then change his mind. But it’s official, he’s making Ready Player One, the science fiction adventure. Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and DreamWorks have announced they’ve dated the film for release on December 15, 2017, with the obligatory gushy quotes. The film is an adaptation of the Ernest Cline novel and marks Spielberg’s return to the sci-fi terrain he patrolled in films like Minority Report and A.I. Zak Penn has been scripting. This has got to make happy DreamWorks’ backers in India, as Reliance has waited for him to do a film with blockbuster potential. The film is being produced by Spielberg, Donald De Line, Dan Farah and Spielberg’s longtime colleague Kristie Macosko Krieger. Village Roadshow’s Bruce Berman is executive producer.

“Any film from Steven Spielberg is an event film, so it felt right to date this thrilling new project from one of our greatest filmmakers for the holiday season,” said Warner Bros domestic distribution head Dan Fellman, who’ll be out of the studio in retirement but has said he’ll return to work on some pictures.

Said Sue Kroll: “From the success of the book, Ready Player One already has a devoted following, and we’re excited for its fans and moviegoers everywhere to see this fantastically innovative story come to life. We know it couldn’t be in better hands, and look forward to working with Steven and the producers to bring it to the big screen.”