With apologies to Gore Verblinski, video games are all the rage in Hollywood. First Atari granddad Nolan Bushnell is having his life turned into a film, now it's the turn of Stefan Eriksson, the Gizmondo Gangster.

We're not even kidding. The Hollywood Reporter states that writer-director Craig Zobel (Great World of Sound) and producers Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson of Contrafilm (Journey to the Centre of the Earth) are attached, with Flynn having optioned a Wired article titled 'Gizmondo's Spectacular Crack-Up' as the basis for the film.

Eriksson, you may remember, was an executive officer at handheld console maker Gizmondo (which ultimately filed for bankruptcy). He's a character of questionable repute who, as SPOnG exclusively revealed back in February 2006, went down in flames as he crashed a Ferrari Enzo of questionable ownership at 162mph. Not long after he found himself facing jail time for embezzlement and unlicensed possession of a firearm.

You can't, however, keep a good gangster down. Eriksson emerged from the slammer in January 2008, only to find himself back in jail in March.

"He just keeps giving", Flynn quipped.

Gizmondo resurfaced with big promises last year (that are yet to be followed through on) with no signs of Eriksson.

You can find that Wired article here. You really could not make this kind of stuff up. Stefan Eriksson, gaming's next big mainstream star!

^{Source: THR}

By Joe Chagan