Variety is reporting that Fox has acquired the movie rights to the popular PC game The SIMS from EA. The question here is: Why would they want them?

The SIMS is a great game, and a lot of fun. But the purpose of the game is simply to mimic real life. You don’t really need the rights to The SIMS in order to make a movie about real life. Besides, real life is pretty damn boring. Most of The SIMS is spent watching people wash dishes and take showers. The rare lesbian moment between two hot roommates only comes after a lot of sleeping, going to work, and bringing in the paper. Or, maybe that’s just my game. Perhaps yours is more exciting.

SIMS Studio head Robert Humble sees more in the game than that. He says, “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.” I have no idea what that even means. It sounds like something he probably said in his sales pitch to Fox. I guess it worked.

The movie is happening, and Scary Movie 3 scribe Brian Lynch has been hired to write a script. This probably means it’ll be some horrible, comedy parody of the game. My guess is that the plot will probably involve Eddie Murphy being sucked into a computer and forced to play the game by some vindictive hacker. Once in the game, he’ll be required to play all the SIMS characters in his world, giving him a chance to dust off his fat suits and put on a dress again.