Beloved life simulator franchise The Sims is officially getting a feature film adaptation, courtesy of LuckyChap, the production company co-founded by Margot Robbie, and Amazon MGM. Per new details revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming film will be directed and co-written by Loki‘s Kate Herron, with Briony Redman also handling screenplay duties.
LuckyChap will work alongside Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment to produce, and EA – the original publisher of the Sims video game franchise – will reportedly have a hand in creative.
Despite The Sims lacking a firm plot beyond lore tidbits and teases, a film version of the series has been in and out of development for nearly two decades. 20th Century Fox was attached to develop a film at one point, and several scripts were reportedly produced. With the star power of Margot Robbie and following the post-Barbie glow, there’s every chance this new foray will actually hit the big screen.
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As for what The Sims could focus on, it’s open slather, really. The Sims is a series of idyllic life simulator games where players create their own self-contained stories. There are hints at strange things in the peripheral plot, however – alien invasions, killer robots, rat superheroes, living mummies, vampires, werewolves, fairies, and mermaids – so a Sims adaptation could go anywhere.
What we want from The Sims movie
We’re likely to hear much more about The Sims movie over the coming years, as work progress, but until then, it’s great fun to speculate wildly. The boring option for a film plot would be the most basic and obvious – a Sim discovers they live in a simulation, and must attempt to break out.
But The Truman Show has already done this much better than any Sims movie could – and anyway, that’s a fairly predictable plot. Barbie even tread similar ground, and we know Margot Robbie likes to branch out with her film production and acting choices.
Something a bit more interesting should fly – perhaps an adaptation of The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS, or The Sims 2 on PlayStation Portable? They’re both very different games. One sees players breaking down in a small town, only to find they’ve inherited the local hotel, and all its troubles with cults and mummies. The other is about moving into a neighbourhood, where nothing is as it seems – one of your neighbours is a ‘werepug’. Another is a fembot. And yes, the local cemetery is definitely, horrifyingly haunted.
Of course, any film adaptation could focus on the wider themes of The Sims – family, relationships, and building a loving home. Then again, zombies and werepugs are much more exciting, aren’t they?
We’ll have to stay tuned to see what Amazon MGM, LuckyChap, and Vertigo Entertainment have planned for the upcoming Sims movie.
