As Variety informs (hat tip to Heartless Doll)
Universal and "Pirates of the Caribbean" helmer Gore Verbinski have acquired a 2007 Wall Street Journal article they will use as the basis for a film about the online fantasy role-playing world and its detrimental impact on the real lives of players.
You already guess, story is about a guy who spend too much time on the grid, has a cool looking avatar but is completely different in the meatspace. Yes, he had a wife in the first life and a tall redhead in the second life. That's enough info to recreate the rest of the scenario. Lame, right?
I guess that some people like to see how pathetic are other people that are not so slim and young in meatspace as they are in virtual worlds. Which is pathetic as well. Will that make a good movie? Or even popular movie? I doubt it.
First, we have already seen that virtual worlds hardly translate on silver screen. For a reason. Point and the magic of the virtual world is one step beyond the movie. It's about open-endedness, taking control of the plot and first person experience. That's why virtual worlds were invented in the first place. Yes, we saw a couple of them that are really good, but those had a story much stronger than some-guy-maybe-cheating-his-wife.
Then, who is targeted audience? I hope they don't count on the residents of second life. We all know they will analyze every second of the movie, count framerates and seek for every, even slightest, mistake. And they will be negatively opinionated even before the opening credits. On the other side are people who never touched the grid. They won't mind any leak in reality of the virtual world. But will they get it? Hardly so. I don't say it's impossible to present virtual reality on the big screen. Once again, those that do it well tell us different kind of stories.
But movie will be there, and we'll have another major flood of noobs seeking sex and adventure, trying to look extra-cool and have sex with ultra-sexy redheads before they know how to take their default pants off. We'll have more negative publicity and beseen as freaks from even more strangers. We'll survive it, as we did all the times before. After all, maybe they make a feasable movie. Wish them luck.
Leave a Reply