Movie Rights to Dead Island Optioned by Lionsgate

The official trailer for Dead Island seemed to set the internet alight, and bore very little resemblance to any other video games trailer that I’ve yet seen; the mix of emotional music and a heart-wrenching twist to the story along with the strange but mesmerising effect of the trailer being played in reverse certainly made a lot people sit up and take notice.  At the time of writing, the official trailer has 6,876,776 views on Youtube.  It even won the Golden Lion in Cannes at the International Festival of Creativity, the highest honour that the advertising industry can bestow.

Given that kind of exposure and viral success, it’s not surprising that Lionsgate (the studio behind such pictures as American Psycho, Fahrenheit 9/11, Hostel, The Descent and Saw IV) has optioned the rights from the game’s creators, Deep Silver, with the intent of creating a motion picture directly inspired by the trailer.  According to Joe Drake, co-COO of Lionsgate, “This is exactly the type of property we’re looking to adapt… it’s sophisticated, edgy, and a true elevation of a genre that we know and love.”



With the film already in the early development stages and with producer Sean Daniel (whose credits include The Mummy, Tombstone and Dazed and Confused) attached, and considering the obvious cinematic and videogame appeal of zombies, the Dead Island movie has the potential to be one of very, very few videogame adaptations that might be worth watching… especially since Uwe Boll doesn’t seem to be involved in any capacity.  What do you think- will the Dead Island movie hit the spot or stink like a rotting corpse?