NAPSTER: THE MOVIE

Thrill to students getting busted for illegally downing files! Chuckle as Hank Barry offers the majors a billion to allow the service to keep its doors open! Cringe in horror as Judge Marilyn Patel issues yet another injunction!

That’s right. For all those who thought "The Animal" was the best flick since "Freddy Got Fingered," "Napster: The Movie" may be coming to a multiplex (or computer terminal) near you.

Reuters reports that a movie about the notorious file-sharing service is in the works.

"I can confirm we're in development on a project called 'Napster'," said Starz Encore’s Marc McCarthy, a spokesman for the unit of Liberty Media Group, a provider of movie programming for cable television operators that also produces its own full-length features.

Apparently, the story of the phenomenally popular song-swap service that turned the $40 billion recording industry on its head is a natural for Hollywood.

Officials at the Redwood City, CA-based Napster declined to comment on whether they have spoken with Scott Fields, the Los Angeles-based screenwriter who has been traveling across the country interviewing people for the script, which is under development at Starz Encore.

Fields has reportedly met with associates and friends of Shawn Fanning, the Northeastern University dropout who wrote the program for the music file-sharing service as a way for his friends to share their favorite songs online until the recording industry helped derail it with a court injunction. This week, the beleaguered company may have written itself a happy ending by signing a deal with RealNetworks, WMG, EMI and BMG that could enable it to participate with the big labels in MusicNet, the legitimate music subscription service the labels hope to launch later this summer.

Will the 70 million Napster fans turn out to watch it? Not if they have to pay for the tickets.