Never mind movies about Facebook; that's still too real for me. Thankfully, Hollywood has discovered the Avatar-like potential of Second Life - Well, almost.

Warner Bros has picked up the movie rights to Ready Player One, a new novel by Eddie Cline, the writer of Star Wars-worship movie Fanboys. Described as "Willy Wonka, The Matrix, and Avatar all rolled into one," Ready takes the virtual world of Second Life and... well, makes it more appealing, to say the least. Here's the official description:

In the near future, outcast teenager Wade Watts escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the Oasis, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When the eccentric billionaire who created the Oasis dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Along with gamers from around the world Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first.

It's like a virtual Goonies!

The novel was only picked up by a publisher last week, so expect "the near future" to come and go before you see this in a theater near you, sadly.