This week FilmNewsBriefs interviews Jason Spingarn-Koff the director of Life 2.0 which recently had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. We discuss creating the film using machinima, filming in a virtual worlds and the future of the internet.

Yes, you read that headline right. Those who don’t frequent virtual worlds may scoff at the whole avatar thing (they may want to scream, “get a first life before you start spending so much energy on your second one”), yet some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley have been anticipating the rise of an entire economy around virtual goods and services. Revenues are expected to reach $621 million in the U.S. this year, according to a Piper Jaffray report cited by eMarketer yesterday. By 2013, the category will generate a cool $2.46 billion. Even Facebook is getting into the act. The social network is testing its own universal currency and celebrity Britney Spears is out in front of the trend, hawking virtual gifts here on her Facebook page.