Second Live Movie, brought to you by HBO, is not so far fetched as similar ideas were being tested out by Linden Labs last year and earlier still with the Second Life Movie Trailer Contest of 2006:

"…We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Second Annual Second Life Movie Trailer Contest is "Second Life: Get One" by Silver and Goldie Productions. The creators of the trailer, Silver and Goldie Goodman, are relative newcomers to Second Life. They are currently building out an in-world machinima production studio on Studio Shores which they envision will become "the premier machinima production and resource center in SL, to serve RL clients."

Also, MACHINIMA has a series of articles and tutorials on "Half Life" movies:

"…tutorial is written with the assumption that the reader has at least read and understood the previous tutorials, although no experience other than that should be necessary. I'd also like to recommend at this point that you download the more recent half-life.fgd file, which can be found on the 69th Vlatitude site, and at least version 1.0.0.9 of HL itself. Though this is not necessary for all of this tutorial there is a point later on where it is and so now is a good time to download these files."

Finally, the Second Life Wiki shows anyone how to make a Second Life Movie with basic requirements being:

"..Windows Media 8.0 and 9.0 codecs (if you don't already have them). You can find these at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wi…cdownload.aspx and Video editing software."

HBO is reported to have paid six figures to rights to it's first Second Life Movie with is going to be called "My Second Life: The Video Diaries of Molotov Alva".  Meanwhile the original story about the Second Life Movie came from Reuters:

"…"My Second Life: The video diaries of Molotov Alta" purports to tell the story of a man who "disappeared from his California home" and began issuing video dispatches from Second Life. The popular virtual world, which has its own currency and a growing economy, has drawn millions of users who create alter egos called avatars and interact with people from around the world."

"…Each of the 7 mini-episodes of "My Second Life" explore a different subculture within the virtual world, according to HBO, ranging "from Furries to Cyberpunks to Neo-Luddites to Sex Slaves to the King of the Hobos."

I'm not sure how convincing the storyline of My Second Life: The Video Diaries of Molotov Alva" actually is - I think the idea of disappearing into a virtual world has been done many times already (thinking of a CSI episode that does the same thing this fall) and how good the film is depends on the quality of the writing and animation.   

Also see HBO buys Rights to Short-Form Documentary Shot Completely in Virtual World Second Life in Know More Media's BizofShowBiz blog authored by  Gary Bourgeault where it's said:

 "…The story is about a man who disappears from his home in California and starts to send video dispatches from Second Life.

Concerning the virtual world, Gayeton said, "You build visually rich, dense environments in an incredibly short amount of time, and you can work collaboratively using the tools of Second Life. It gives you an idea of how animation will look five years from now."

Maybe the biggest thing there is HBO thinks it's worth spending some money on the idea of a virtual world Second Life Movie (see a version of the Second Life Movie below):