Ernest Cline is an American screenwriter and novelist. He was born in 1972 and grew up in rural Ohio. In 1998, Cline wrote a screenplay entitled, Fanboys, about the craze surrounding the prequels to the Star Wars movies. Over a decade later, the movie was finally released in 2009. However, creative differences and his dissatisfaction with the final edit, led Cline to quit screenwriting and write a novel. That novel, based on an idea he had been considering for years, became the New York Times Bestseller, Ready Player One. His second novel, Armada, is due to be released in 2015.