BREAKING: Lionsgate has acquired movie rights to Dead Island, the Deep Silver video game about vacationers on an island paradise who are attacked by zombies. A teaser trailer released last February depicting a family fighting off the undead started a rights chase for a video game that was released in September by Techland for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It has sold 2 million units so far. The teaser got 1 million hits in 24 hours. At the time, the rights were shopped by Sean Daniel Company’s Daniel and Jason Brown and Union Entertainment’s Richard Leibowitz and Dmitri Johnson, but there was a big dispute over who actually had the rights.
The dust has settled and Daniel, who produced The Mummy series, is the only one of that original team that survived in this configuration. He’ll produce with Stefan Sonnenfeld, a top post-production guy. “Like the hundreds of journalists and millions of fans who were so passionate and vocal about the Dead Island trailer, we too were awestruck,” said Lionsgate’s Joe Drake. “This is exactly the type of property we’re looking to adapt at Lionsgate: it’s sophisticated, edgy, and a true elevation of a genre that we know and love. It also has built in brand recognition around the world, and franchise potential.” Jason Brown and Missy Papageorge are exec producers and Sarah Perlman is co-producer. Here’s the trailer once again:
I heard the video game is a huge disappointment and doesn’t come close to living up to the quality of the trailer, but I think that if the movie captures the essence and the emotional poignance of the trailer than it will do smashingly well.
Good luck to Lionsgate!
The game is actually quite good, and is a best seller. Don’t know if it will translate into a movie, but I enjoy playing the game.
Here’s hoping for another Uwe Boll box office hit!
…er…
If ever there’s been a good reason to make a film… it’s because of a trailer. This is a joke. Any excuse to make a genre pic these days. Unless the game introduced some new twist this is just more of the same.
Have to agree — the trailer is terrific, really terrific, but unless they’re planning on running the entire film backwards, with no dialog, with that score playing, it’s not necessarily going to help them make a good movie.
I don’t understand what was so terrific about the trailer. To me it looked like it was covering the exact same ground as Left 4 Dead. As in EXACT same ground.
Dead Island -> Disappointment??? I’m sorry, i own the game, actually really fun with friends online. More of my friends want to play it, but for some reason it is hard to find copies now. Sure sounds like a disappointment to me.
For someone like me who’s hasn’t played a video game since the 80’s (Iknow, I know), please share how Dead Island works. Cuz it just looks to me like they’re so outnumbered and can’t ever win. Is it just different scenarios where you try to keep the family alive (longer) and whack zombies? Not saying this isn’t inneresting.
The ironic thing is, the family isn’t in the game. The trailer just sort of shows what was happening on the island right before the game starts. The actual gameplay, you’re a different guy exploring the island. (Haven’t played it myself.) The kind of gameplay you describe, with continual hoards of zombies coming at you, is more like the game “Left 4 Dead.”
“it’s sophisticated.” haha! this guy makes a salary? just like a million other zombie things except it’s at a resort. lionsgate: where “sophisticated” means “for ages 5 and up.” nice 2011 P&L by the way Drake.
and Lionsgate just posted how much of a loss….30 million?
no wait….
40 million??
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh 50 million……
makes total sense now why they would scoop this up and declare it exactly what they’re looking for since there are only 16 other zombie movies in pre / prod / post right now.
Stephanie Hunt,Sarah Hyland,Matt Prokop are making the “April Apocalypse” movie right now. Tarnol Bro’s will make some big bank off that. Lionsgate needs to get Stephanie for the Johanna Mason part,and she can be great in this also.
What the last two said. How sad anyone at Lionsgate considers this is surefire thing. What’s “terrific” or poignant about the same old zombie scenes we’ve seen 2 or 3 hundred times since “The Night of Living Dead” (or before?)? i.e; over forty years worth now. Just because the trailer moves backwards in slow motion with sappy, inappropriate music? (as if this were a ‘real family drama’ we should all be gullible enough to believe in!) How old are guys?
It had a bug-ridden debut that was met with only ho-hum reviews by video game critics. Oh! And the game is nothing like what is promised in the trailer. It’s not poignant. It’s not emotional.
Maybe it wasn’t entirely a disappointment, but it wasn’t a great game. And definitely isn’t worth making a movie out of.
“was met with only ho-hum reviews by video game critics”
An 81 out of 100 score on the respected Metacritic site is ho-hum? That’s considered gold by video game standards.
Just hire the guys who made the awesome trailer – the guys who made the game don’t know shit
Dead island at launch was one of the highest demanding games out there. After 2 weeks on shelves, it is nearly impossible to find a copy. Yes the trailer is not like the game, but who cares. Having a game like this is pretty cool. The movie will be good to. How many zombie movies can you name that took place on a island??
Zombie 2 takes place on a tropical island.
” If ever there’s been a good reason to make a film… it’s because of a trailer. This is a joke. Any excuse to make a genre pic these days. ”
Who gives a crap how or why a movie is made, let alone a genre pic?
As long as it’s done well and makes money…no one cares.
It’s the shitty ones that are made with too much money; bad script, acting
and directing that makes it bad on the audience. Have to wait and see.
” If ever there’s been a good reason to make a film… it’s because of a trailer. This is a joke. Any excuse to make a genre pic these days. ”
Who gives a crap how or why a movie is made, let alone a genre pic?
As long as it’s done well and makes money…no one cares.
It’s the shitty ones that are made with too much money; bad script, acting
and directing that makes it bad on the audience. Have to wait and see.
As usual Lionsgate goes with the gory tasteless Saw-clone crap.
They are such bottom feeders, exploiting the lowest instincts of people. Zero taste.
Icahn was right, too bad he didn’t win.
I’ve played through the game twice since I got it opening day. I love it. Here’s an historical fact though: there has NEVER been a good movie based on a video game. Never. Like good animated films that are made into bad live action productions, games are a genre best left to games. We’ll never learn this lesson of course. A jobs a job, and suckers like mr will see the movie anyway because of the game, but I’m having second thoughts already for dead island the movie.