Hollywood Plans Sims Movie; Jean Baudrillard: ‘I Told You So’

The Sims to Screen: 20th Century Fox acquires rights to video game the Sims, everyday-life simulator from Electronic Arts. That’s right: In an effort to avoid just telling a story about ordinary people, Hollywood has acquired rights to a video game about simulated ordinary people. [Variety]

Miramax Buys Schnabel Film: Miramax wins auction for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Cannes favorite from Julian Schnabel based on memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, paraplegic former editor of Elle. [HR]

Bullock in Sham Marriage: Sandra Bullock signs on for The Proposal, about a boss facing deportation who agrees to a sham marriage with her employee. It turns out — wait for it — they fall in love. Peter Chiarelli wrote the script for Touchstone. [Variety]

Simpsons Writer for Alternadad: Neal Pollack memoir Alternadad will be adapted by ex-Simpsons scribe Dana Gould for Warner Bros. Gould is also working on a sitcom set in a post-zombie-holocaust world for Comedy Central. [Variety]

Cage Drops Out: Nicolas Cage drops out of Brian De Palma’s Untouchables sequel, citing scheduling issues, which is Hollywood code for “I woke up this morning and thought, What the hell am I doing?” [Variety]

Dogme Opera: Opera version of Lars Von Trier musical Dancer in the Dark commissioned by Denmark’s Royal Theater. Poul Ruders will write the music; English-language libretto will be written by Henrik Engelbrecht. As befitting Dogme rules, opera will take place in only one opera hall, using only natural acoustics and live musical instruments. [Variety]

Gay Robot to be Animated?: Sources tell Hollywood Reporter that Adam Sandler–produced pilot Gay Robot, rejected by networks but a hit online, will be made into animated series for Comedy Central. Network makes a big deal out of Gay Robot’s 32,000 MySpace friends but fails to realize that most of those friends are other lonely, gay robots, few of whom are Nielsen households. [HR]

Random House Pubs Borat: In long-percolating deal, Random House will publish books “written by” Borat Sagdiyev, Sacha Baron Cohen’s longtime guerrilla-comedy character. Two titles, Borat: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Borat: Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, will be published as one back-to-back volume this fall, perfectly timed to release of Borat movie one year before. [NYT]