- Word around town at the end of the week was out regarding a feature film based on popular video game franchise “The Simsâ€. Normally, we wouldn’t get too excited about a video game to film project, but the news of the writer has us intrigued – Brian Lynch, who got his start writing and directing the rare View Askew sketch comedy “Big Helium Dogâ€, was hired to script “Simsâ€, and we think his razor wit and quick humor will be a perfect fit for this project. Given the vast amount of material to work with, we think Lynch will really shine with this one. Of course, what’s on the page is one thing, directors and actors are another, so we’ll keep our eyes on this one very closely. Still, we’re happy to see Brian get the much-deserved work, and look forward to seeing what he comes up with for this one. Stories are scattered around the ‘net on this one, Gamespot probably had the most to say :
The Sims Movie Planned
The integration between games and movies has grown steadily over the last few years, and now one of the biggest gaming franchises is getting involved. 20th Century Fox will be making a film version of The Sims, reports Variety. The screenplay will be written by Brian Lynch, but it is not yet known who the director or other “talent†involved will be.
The Sims movie will be a “live-action version,†reports the newspaper, presumably meaning that it will feature real-life actors and actresses as opposed to animations. It is not known how the producers intend to adapt the life simulation series for movie goers. The feature film project has been set up with producer John Davis, with Steve Asbell overseeing the project for Fox and EA’s Rod Humble managing the property for Electronic Arts.
Brian Lynch wrote and directed the movie Big Helium Dog, a 20th Century Fox mockumentary comedy released in 1999. John Davis’ production credits include Eragon, When a Stranger Calls, and Norbit.
EA’s Sims Studio head Rod Humble commented, “The Sims has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it’s like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it. Given that that’s an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional storytelling.â€
The first Sims game, which was created by Will Wright, was released on the PC in 2000, and PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube versions followed in 2003. It spawned a series of expansion packs for the original game, a sequel, The Sims 2, and a series of expansion packs for the sequel, too. The Sims 3 is currently in development, along with a Wii and Nintendo DS game called MySims. In total, the games in the series have sold more than 85 million copies worldwide.
Due to the game’s audience, expect a PG or PG-13 rating for this one. More via Zap2It and Variety, Coming Soon, etc. There’s a lot of mixed reaction out there on the project, though we think Lynch’s writing should raise eyebrows when this one comes ’round.

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