Johnny Memetic.
a planned sequel that, while full of pop culture references and in-jokes, lacked any sort of substance or message or plot.
The project was cancelled and the script was thought lost
until some time later someone discovered it, filed off the serial numbers, and turned it into Ready Player One.
@Felthry
That's okay. It's a pretty bad one tbh, just playing off how similar Mnemonic and Memetic look in text, the film/book title Johnny Mnemonic, and how devoid of substance the book/film Ready Player One is in favour of filling it with pop culture references like it's a teen-age first attempt at fanfiction (much like how a lot of memes rely on pop culture and what are basically just wider ranging in-jokes in communities)
@Nine it would probably have helped if we'd heard of johnny mnemonic or had any real idea of what ready player one was other than "a bad movie"
@Felthry
This is fair. (Though I think either I would have made the joke better or not made it at all if I had any more concrete knowledge of either source material as well.)
@Nine Going from an incomplete realization of a cyber dystopia to an incoherent version of one, with studio notes to "funny it up" and "make it play in Peoria" ... Yep, this checks out.
@Nine I'm guessing this is a joke but I don't get it