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Of all the games that I imagined being optioned for a movie in the near future, Spore was quite possibly the last one on my list. So after the initial shock of the news that 20th Century Fox has paired up with Electronic Arts to bring us an animated version of Spore, my next reaction was, "How?"

I've played Spore, and it is by far one of the most imaginative and innovative games out there. Which is partially why I'm wondering how it would be made into a movie. What I mean is that in the first stages of the game there is no objective other than to evolve. Your character starts off as a single cell in the ocean, and it is your job to evolve your character by adding completely customizable features. Everything from propulsion jets to an electric shock defense mechanism are included to help you survive. Every feature you choose though, has an effect on the further growth and appearance of your creature, so no two characters are alike.

Eventually your character will develop to the point where it can grow legs and walk on land, at which time the game takes on a more RTS-ish type of gameplay. However, at no point in this game is there ever a main character, a background story or plot, or even a specific race of creatures you can build a story around. So as my original question pointed to, I am indeed very interested as to how exactly EA and Fox will bring us a movie about this particular game. According to Variety, Ice Age's Chris Wedge is set to direct, and EA's Patrick O'Brien will exec produce the feature with the VP of Maxis Studio, Lucy Bradshaw.

I'm very interested to see what others think of this game being optioned, especially if you've played it before. How do you see Spore becoming a movie?