As soon as its impressive trailer first hit the web and instantly shot around the world, talk emerged of a possible Dead Island movie adaptation; with a number of studios vying to obtain the production rights to the video game (which was only released this month); rights which have now been awarded to Lionsgate.
It’s still in the extremely early stages of development, and so far we’re not only lacking a release date, stars, and a director, but don’t even have writers attached to pen a script, however Lionsgate president Joe Drake says that Dead Island is “a true elevation of a genre we know and love”, and stated with the recent press release that “its focus on human emotion, family ties and non-linear storytelling” will make Dead Island “an innovation of the zombie genre.”
Based on a luxury island resort that’s being ravaged by an undead plague, Dead Island follows a number of strangely immune survivors as they try and fend of zombie attacks in order to survive; and has the key ingredients of any decent survival horror (a relentless and seemingly unstoppable force threatening to kill everyone, mis-matched strangers thrown together in a battle to survive, a claustrophobic setting, and difficulty to escape from the situation); and given that Lionsgate plan on using the hugely popular, and very memorable trailer, for the game (which won a number of awards, and can now be seen below) as the “primary creative inspiration” for the film, its a zombie picture that has the potential to be a real killer at the Box Office.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Lionsgate.
