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Art-eschewing, mainstream-tentpole- project-maker Brett Ratner's love for the video game sensation known as the Guitar Hero knows no bounds. His obsession with the instrument sim and its groupie-nailing expansion packs stems back to his formative years at NYU film school, when he'd busk in Washington Square Park, playing as many Police songs as he could using the four notes he was capable of eliciting from a harmonica. The first time he picked up Hero, it gave him the same quaternary musical thrill ("Smoke on the Water," for example, became a four-color kaleidoscopic "red red blue/green green blue blue/red red green/ yelllooowww"), and he since has gone about incorporating the game into many of his smaller projects—everything from Miley Cyrus videos to Mariah Carey videos. But an actual Guitar Hero movie? He'd love a crack, he told MTV Multiplayer:

“I love ‘Guitar Hero’ and I think it’s a part of pop culture. I would love to do a ‘Guitar Hero’ movie, if Activision would ever let me. I’m trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a ‘Guitar Hero’ movie. ”

And here is his idea for the plot: “It could be about a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the ‘Guitar Hero’ competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts.” [...] “I have a deal with Activision for their branding,” he said. “For instance, naming ‘Guitar Hero: World Tour,’ coming up with the new ‘Guitar Hero game name. It’s sort of like [MTV's] ‘Rock Band.’ So they said: ‘Come up with a name.’ And I did, and it became ‘Guitar Hero: World Tour.’”

Duly noted: World Tour? That's all Rat. As for his movie idea, the time might actually be right for an updating of the Arcade Underdog myth—as outlined in Joseph Campbell's The Mario with a Thousand Faces, and explored by Hollywood countless times in films like Tommy and The Wizard (for which star Fred Savage is still suffering the debilitating effects of carpal tunnel syndrome). Of course, Ratner's vision won't shy away from depicting the uglier side of the Guitar Hero dream, featuring Chris Tucker in a supporting role as a power-up-addicted fading virtuoso, whose meltdown moment, "CAN YOU HEAR THE NOTES THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY PLASTIC GUITAR?" is met by a collective shrug by an audience looking for the next hot GH thing.