'Spore' set for the big screen

(AFP) -

Hit video game "Spore" is set to evolve onto the big screen as an animated movie, entertainment press reported Friday.

Daily Variety said Twentieth Century Fox was developing the film with video game publisher Electronic Arts. "Ice Age" film-maker Chris Wedge is set to direct, Variety reported.

"From every perspective -- visually, thematically and comedically -- the world of 'Spore' provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen," Wedge was quoted as saying.

More than 65 million creatures have been created by players since "Spore" was released.

Players start as microscopic life forms competing for survival in primordial ooze and work their way onto land, where they evolve into creatures that build civilizations and rocket into space.

Creatures can be made to have scales, fins, wings, claws, extra appendages, additional eyes, or body parts in unexpected places.