Top-selling PC franchise The Sims is to become a movie after 20th Century Fox secured the rights.

The five year-old series has sold more than 85 million copies worldwide, bringing in $1.9 billion in revenue for publisher Electronic Arts.

Fox has placed famed movie mogul John Davis in charge of the project, whose name appears as producer on a long list of well known films including Eragon, Alien Vs Predator, I, Robot and The Day After Tomorrow.

Writer Brian Lynch, whose work includes Scary Movie 3, will create the script while Sims studio boss Rob Humble will manage the project for EA.

"The Sims has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it's like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it," said Humble. "Given that that's an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling."

A games industry spokesman said: "Taking into account The Sims is a game simulating real life events, it seems likely the movie will play in a similar fashion to hit movie The Truman Show."

No further details on the movie has yet been announced.