According to Variety, Paramount and MTV Films have hired Alex Winter to pen Napster: The Shawn Fanning Bio Project.

MTV originally developed the project about the Napster founder as a TV movie in 2002 but decided only last year to take the story to the bigscreen.

In 1999 Fanning created Napster (his own nickname) in his dorm room at Northeastern U. in Boston as a way for collegians to swap music files on the Internet. He dropped out of school to launch Napster as an online business, prompting lawsuits from the Recording Industry Assn. of America, Dr. Dre and Metallica.

Fanning's company filed for bankruptcy in 2002. He recently launched Snocap in hopes of making peer-to-peer networks legitimate.

Winter's best known for acting in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey and The Lost Boys. Writing and directing career includes Freaked, Bravehearts and Fever along with extensive work as a musicvideo and commercial director in Europe.