20th Century Fox Acquires Sims Film Rights

20th Century Fox has acquired feature-film rights to Electronic Arts' super-popular franchise, The Sims.

Steve Asbell is overseeing the project for Fox, while studio head Rod Humble is managing the creative property for Electronic Arts. Scary Movie 3 scriptwriter Brian Lynch will be handling the story, although no details regarding the plot have yet been released. No casting information has been announced, but the movie will be filmed in live-action.

Developed by Maxis, The Sims was first released in 2000. Its massive success spawned numerous add-ons as well as a full-blown sequel, growing to become the most popular franchise in PC game history. Eighty-five million units have been sold worldwide, for a total of over $1.6 billion in sales.

"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," said Humble. "Given that that's an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling."