Here's how they're making The Sims into a movie

by Justin McElroy { Sep 22nd 2008 at 12:40PM }

You probably wondered, when you heard about a Sims movie, how they planned to turn a game with literally no plot into a film. Here, according to producer John Davis, is the plan:

"... So this is the way I did it: The Sims, as you know, you can control your imaginary world, right? And in our movie, a young man, a 16 year old kid or a 14 year old kid and his friend get their hands on this thing called the Sims Infinity Pack, right, which is kind of this very strange video game store which was there just for that moment, and seemingly wasn't and all that. But what they realize is that they can scan their world in, because this is the most life like, real Sims game ever. And as they are playing this they are all of a sudden realizing is what they are playing on the game is having an effect on the real world. So in effect, through the game, they are able to control their world. It's wish fulfillment, and obviously it turns against them."

It's a larger quote than we'd normally post in full, but we didn't want you to think we had tampered with it in any way. So as not to make this post take up any more real estate on the front page, we've put our mature and insightful critique of the film's concept right after the break.

It's fucking terrible.

[Thanks, Steve]

Tags: movies, the-sims, the-sims-movie

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Newwaverap @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:46PM

What about Spore the movie, with DRM of course so 1 ticket per household.

BigD145 @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:48PM

You can remember it 3 times, but after that it melts your brain and you can't remember it anymore.

JPN @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:45PM

I wouldn't see it...but it's a little better than I thought. I pictured it being all CG and it was actually the characters being Sims. Now it's just an hour and a half ad for the game.

Titanium_Orchid @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:46PM

JUMANJI!!!

Nathaniel Edwards @ Sep 22nd 2008 3:14PM

Indeed, it is Jumanji.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Sep 22nd 2008 3:19PM

Man I loved that movie... and has anyone seen Zathura?

Meta @ Sep 22nd 2008 7:35PM

I saw the end, absolutely terrible.

prry @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:46PM

so sort of like clockstoppers but not really?

BigD145 @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:47PM

So it's The Master Computer stories taken at a slightly different slant and without any "adult" content? Old meme is old.

Rocko @ Sep 22nd 2008 3:12PM

thank god, I thought I was the only perverted freak who read those stories, and actually thought this sounded a lot like it.

&rew @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:50PM

Heres a better plot: make 10 sims that are exactly the sames as each other, and watch them all fight to the death.

CesarSalad @ Sep 22nd 2008 3:44PM

hahahaha

TWiNKiE @ Sep 22nd 2008 9:02PM

I can honestly say i'm lol.

Baron @ Sep 22nd 2008 12:59PM

How long will it take them to build a small moat around some, neglect to feed them, wash them or let them go to the bathroom to the point they cry and go on themselves?

Neuromancer @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:03PM

The twist is the whole movie is spoken in Simlish with thought balloons.

Ignatius @ Sep 22nd 2008 2:36PM

Every topless scene is, of course, blurred out by pixelated garbage.

And mysteriously, Sims will run towards fires, freak out and wet themselves... then dive towards the fire in an attempt to save their skins.

Mike @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:03PM

HA HA HA. This movie will never be released in theaters, mark my words.

Sinnix @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:07PM

It's still better than most movie concepts coming out of Hollywood.

007craft @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:07PM

Sounds alot like wired scinece (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090305/), except they get to control their own world rather then some hot girl appearing and controling it for them.

Sounds like fun to me. I mean sure its no theater movie but I like watching cooky kids movies like this. Deffenitly will be downloading the blu-ray rip once it hits the net. Im sure its gonna be better then most video game movies, like the crap uwe boll makes.

Vegnagun bwf @ Sep 22nd 2008 2:34PM

Has anyone ever told you that you have bad taste in movies?

Sam @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:11PM

who says that ISN'T what The Sims already does? how do we know we haven't been erasing doors in homes of people who were never seen again?? Will Wright is a Witchdoctor, you know...

Samuel D. Lockhart @ Sep 22nd 2008 2:02PM

Logic

Habiib @ Sep 22nd 2008 2:23PM

Maybe the DRM is like a Death Return Machine and you can only get reincarnated three times?

Sam @ Sep 22nd 2008 2:24PM

sarcasm

j.howlett @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:12PM

Ishtar?

John Z @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:13PM

You know, it's pitches like this which inspire me that maybe I could realize my dream of writing a big-budget, pull-out-all-the-stops movie someday. I already have a title in mind, too: "Not The F#@$ing Sims".

Jim. @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:13PM

In other news I just got paid a million dollars to adapt Minesweeper into a film.

CyberKnight @ Sep 22nd 2008 2:14PM

Been done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

Dirty @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:16PM

They stole my idea!

Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 22nd 2008 3:16PM

...well then I just pity you.

nickels @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:29PM

i cant see it really being a sims film
just a film the cashes in on the sims success

Corren @ Sep 22nd 2008 3:09PM

Stargate: Atlantis already did this as I recall.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0902891/

Jon2309 @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:34PM

Hi, Uwe Boll.

No wait, WHAT?

Saluki @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:46PM

I think the movie studio should take the money they are going to spend on this film, give it to me and I can come up with something that wont be HALF as bad as this film will be.

Ryuukuro @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:38PM

The only problem with this pitch, aside from it being a pitch for a Sims movie, is that the characters are teenage boys. How many teenage boys play the Sims? College age girls? Then you have the movie.

Really, if they rewrote this to star Tina Fey and Amy Pohler, then I might check it out. That would work.

Daria @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:41PM

Didn't 'Malcolm in the Middle' have an episode similar to this premise??

jimmygotsmack @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:42PM

O GOD WHY?!?!

FOXHOUND @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:42PM

Close to what I had thought of years back before SIMS2 was released.
Here's my pitch for a Sims Movie:

* * *

Movie begins with repeated shots of a young male going through the usual morning routine, work shift, short evening freetime playing videogames/watching tv, eating and sleeping. There's shots of obvious mood swings ranging from annoyance (A "case of the Mondays" shot) to petty joy (wins chump change on a lottery scratch-off).
The routine goes on, pitilessly until one day, he literally falls out of the opposite side of his bed and finds a nightstand that wasn't there previously. The protagonist shrugs it off, continues on with routine... until more 'oddities' and out-of-place mishaps occur. His car is green instead of black. His pet is a goldfish instead of a dog. The landscape and names of long-standing buildings change name. Even his own vocabulary has changed from calling money "bucks" to "simoleans"(a nod to the game's currency).
Then his world hits the extreme... He returns home from work one day to find a supposed wife, of whom he's never seen nor met previously. The house is completely redecorated and even the aforementioned goldfish is now a bird named "Wright". And that's where the movie takes off into a full supernatural tone, of which the protagonist eventually discovers that he's nothing more than the virtual figment of a "Duck Amuck" inspired tale.