Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2008/12/18/sadville_movie/

It's Sadville: The Movie!

Flying penises, 30ft high

By Christopher Williams

Posted in Bootnotes, 18th December 2008 12:26 GMT

It's natural in Hollywood that if you have a big hit as a director, you pretty much get to make whatever you want, but this is one artistic conceit too far. Pirates of the Caribbean helmsman Gore Verbinski has reportedly acquired the rights to make a film about a Second Life obsessive who "cheats" on his wife.

Sadville: The Movie! will be based on a zeitgeist-surfing trend yarn from The Wall Street Journal in 2007, Variety reports. It's here.

Rather like Britain's own recent Sadville cheating scandal, the players in the Wall Street Journal's cyberadultery tale don't look much like their avatars. As Variety puts it: "The article by Alexandra Alter focuses on a married man who spends as many as 20 hours a day on a computer, existing through an avatar who is a thriving, musclebound entrepreneur. In reality, he is a diabetic, chain-smoking 53-year-old."

Verbinski will produce the as-yet untitled bonkbuster, which will be funded by Universal. A script is in the works from Eastern Promises writer Steven Knight.

What insight into the human condition Verbinski hopes to offer via a movie about Sadville is unclear at this stage, but we have three words for him that should serve as a warning from history: Lawnmower Man 2. ®

Bootnote

We don't tend to get asked for this sort of thing, but just in case, here's our quote for the poster:

Watching Sadville: The Movie! made me confront the ambient joylessness of modern existence and appalling loneliness of many lives. Two thumbs up! The kids will love the flying penises! - The Register