Alex Winter developing film about Napster

Alex Winter is developing a documentary about the controversial music downloading service Napster.

The Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure star will team up with US TV network VH1 to direct a film about the website, which was founded in the 90s by Shawn Napster.

Napster was eventually shut down due to copyright infringement issues, but Winter insists the free file-sharing site sparked a new revolution with technology and social media and it's story needs telling.

He tells Deadline.com: "The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from... WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook.

"It became an expression of youth revolt, and contributed to a complete shift in how information, media and governments work. And it is a fascinating human story, where this 18-year-old kid invents a peer-to-peer file-sharing system, and brings it to the world six months later."

Justin Timberlake portrayed Fanning in the hit film The Social Network.