Gore Verbinski's take on an Avatar
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN director Gore Verbinski and Universal Pictures have bought the rights to a 2007 Wall Street Journal article which told the true life tale of a 53 year old chain smoking diabetic, who only 7 months into his marriage spent as much as 20 hours per day online pretending to be a musclebound entrepreneur through a computer Avatar version of himself. He did it on the program Second Life where he even got himself an online wife. You can read Alexandra Alters full article Is This Man Cheating on His Wife HERE. Variety say EASTERN PROMISES and AMAZING GRACE writer Steven Knight will scribe the adaptation. Sue Hoogestraat, 58, an export agent for a shipping company, who is married to Mr. Hoogestraat (the guy with the Avatar) said of her husband...
"You try to talk to someone or bring them a drink, and they'll be having sex with a cartoon."One wonders if my concentration levels could be kept up for 2 hours of watching a guy sit at a computer desk. Then again, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, a movie about a guy who believes a blow-up sex doll is his real girlfriend, kept me entertained for it's running length (albeit 106 minutes). Hopefully though this is just a fleeting interest for Verbinski before he commits to direct either BIOSHOCK or THE LONE RANGER, both which are being scribed with a view for him to helm possibly as his next movie.