A The Sims movie is in the works with Margot Robbie’s production company
The next big video game movie adaptation could be The Sims, with Electronic Arts partnering with LuckyChap – the production company of Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerly, Josey McNamara and Sophia Kerr – and Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment to make it happen.
Kate Herron, who’s best known for directing season one of Loki, is set to tackle the transformation from computer to big screen, and she will be co-writing the screenplay with Briony Redman.
Of course, with LuckyChap’s involvement, all of the buzz is around the possibility of emulating the success of the Barbie film, which Margot Robbie starred in and produced.
There’s more than surface level parallels between Barbie and The Sims, though. Just like Barbie, The Sims is a sandbox to let your own creativity run wild. With Barbie toys in hand for kids growing up, that’s in making up the stories in your own head, and using the various different playsets and editions of Barbie that come with different looks and jobs, aiming to act as a positive and aspirational role model in many instances. For The Sims, you’re playing within the rules of the game, but through both base games and expansions, there’s a vast array of different jobs, settings and periods of life to manage, from going to university, to advancing careers, dating, magic, animated skeletons, and “woo-hoo!”
What’s pretty likely is that The Sims will end up following a similar template to Barbie and The Lego Movie that went before, bending the game/toy world in a self-referential way and snapping it out into the real world.
Expect there to be references to the aforementioned “woo-hoo!”, perhaps some kind of reverence to or fourth wall breaking surrounding the iconic green control jewel that hovers over a person’s head, and the inevitable incident where someone gets stuck in a swimming pool because the ladder suddenly disappeared or wets themselves because the toilet was deleted.
Developer Maxis is currently hard at work to the next The Sims game, a modern
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