Dead Island trailer rouses Hollywood

By Robert Purchese Published 24 February, 2011

"Big-name directors" on the phone.

That fantastic Dead Island video - which shows a reverse-time account of a young girl on a tropical holiday island being torn away from her parents, become a zombie and eventually be flung out of a window - has sent ripples across Hollywood.

"We had a couple of big-name directors come to us. One of the top directors in Hollywood sent a studio his link to the trailer and said he was interested in this, and the studio contacted us," Malte Wagner, business boss at publisher Koch Media/Deep Silver, told the LA Times blog.

"We've had a lot of inquiries, not only from Union but from other major players for film adaptation. The talks are very early and there's no deal whatsoever. Right now I'd say it boils down to three or four opportunities. Some are studios, not just bonders [financiers] like Union. We'd rather go with a big studio that can bring the creative side.

"There are different opinions of course in how to do this," he added. "The first is that you find a producer and then he brings in a creative team. The other is to find a director first and he'll bring people along. My feeling is we should find a director first."

Wagner said neither The Mummy producer Sean Daniel nor fanancier Union Entertainment had actually been in touch, despite rumours.

Dead Island is a videogame by Call of Juarez developer Techland. It as was originally announced in 2007, and only dredged up last week by publisher Deep Silver following a long silence. Dead Island will now be released late 2011 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

"If we got involved with a movie we'd take a very different approach. We're really not going to make the game the foundation of the movie. We can't just sit down and expand it," said Wagner.

"One of the key reasons why I go to the cinema is to be immersed in the atmosphere and the setting of a different world that's still believable, and that's what we have with the game. You have an emotional attachment. Dead Island has that kind of story and that kind of presentation and I think viewers would want to bond with that world and enter it."

"This can be a good movie if it's done right, but you do have to see it as separate from the game. We're not going to go out and write a movie script based on the game," he reiterated. "You have too many limitations in the game you don't have with a movie.

"We all know that movies are not always what gamers want. Good games aren't good movies and good movies aren't good games. Look at Avatar."

Techland is also working on a third, modern-day Call of Juarez game subtitled The Cartel. Its Mexican focus has caused controversy in Mexico, where the powers that be are calling for the game to be banned.

That Dead Island trailer.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (39) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • RoOhDaMite #1 1 year ago

    to me this is only showcasing one thing: hollywood is desperate.

  • el_pollo_diablo #2 1 year ago

    But what's the name of the production house that actually did the work and deserves the credit here?

  • asphaltcowboy #3 1 year ago

    What's the point? They'll just make a bog-standard zombie film on an island.

    /remembers House of the Dead...

  • chris_ace #4 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • technotica #5 1 year ago

    I wonder when we'll be oversaturated with zombie games.

  • Widge #6 1 year ago

    I hope it Directors make something raw with a gripping family dynamic, and change the game from zombies to some sort mafia loyalty thing.

  • Tomo #7 1 year ago

    "We all know that movies are not always what gamers want. Good games aren't good movies and good movies aren't good games. Look at Avatar."

    LOL.

    Quality quote :D

  • arcam #8 1 year ago

    So I'm presuming Avatar the game was awesome, because the movie was beyond horrible.

  • sport #9 1 year ago

    There's only one man up to the challenge...








    ...Uwe Boll

  • Quint2020 #10 1 year ago

    All this just from a teaser trailer?? Don't get me wrong it's one hell of a trailer and I genuinely do believe that Techland could deliver a truly fantastic game with Dead Island but come on, we've not even seen any gameplay footage yet!
    Edited by Quint2020 at 24/02/11 @ 11:00

  • Gambit1977 #11 1 year ago

    I'm confused. Surely if anything Hollywood should be in contact with the director of the ad...to give them a job.

  • AcidSnake #12 1 year ago

    ...It's kind of an OK story I guess...
    But what I'd like to see is a crime-fighting art-dealing family...
    But not on an island, maybe a desert...
    And a CGI comic relief character...
    That's what gamers want!

  • PearOfAnguish #13 1 year ago

    Yes this doesn't make sense. Zombies attacking an island is not a groundbreaking idea, the only special thing about it was the production of the trailer. Are they planning on making a whole backwards zombie movie? At least it'll have a happy ending.

  • MaliceMajorE15 #14 1 year ago

    Is there an award for trailers? There is a category in the VGA's innit?

  • LOLLERS #15 1 year ago

    el_pollo_diablo - http://www.axisanimation.com/

  • Raconteur #16 1 year ago

    Zombies, zombies, zombies.
    Just like Jordan (Katie Price) been there (figuratively), must of the country (gaming industry) has done that. Yawn.

  • Svalbaard #17 1 year ago

    Seems fairly realistic - family holiday on tropical island invaded and overrun by mindless zombies wanting to tear you limb from limb.

    Just like a standard week in Majorca during the UK holiday period.

  • darkmorgado #18 1 year ago

    Or Glasgow.

    If glasgow was a tropical island.

  • Ducklord #19 1 year ago

    ...that trailer made me sad :(

  • celery7 #20 1 year ago

    Why don't they just get Gaspar Noe to direct, seeing as he's already made irreversible? That uses the same reverse chronology as this trailer with the same pay-off of look how happy everyone was before the bad shit happened.He could simply replace the rape scene with a zombie attack on a pedalo, I mean it wouldn't make a great deal of sense but then do zombie films ever?

  • dadrester #21 1 year ago

    the trailer was okay, but i really don't see what all the fuss is about?

  • eminusx #22 1 year ago

    "ooooh oooh something new we can do with Zombies guys, lets try Zombies on a desert island. . .get me the phone Mac"

    Lucio Fulci has 30 years on you Hollywood dipshits. . .

    try Zombi 2

    I wonder if they understand the irony in swathes of hollywood moguls mindlessly lurching towards the next hunk of marketable meat. . . .

  • TruSmiles #23 1 year ago

    Until I watched it 'backwards' I thought the girl was just having a piggy back ride in a theme park.

  • waynenot #24 1 year ago

    This Year....based on that trailer that the internet thought was OMFG..... (but the game was a bit ropey in the end).....Mark
    Wahlberg IS the little girl..etc.

  • bad09 #25 1 year ago

    i just hope that awesome trailer is not disguising L4D in a different skin. the trailer was something fresh but is that the case for the game?

  • TackyCheeba #26 1 year ago


    Just as long as it ain't Uwe 'i'm gonna kill every game out there' Boll..

  • neems #27 1 year ago

    1 million of your plus points to to this entire comments thread. As already mentioned, if Hollywood want to knock on somebody's door, they should try the guys who made the trailer.

    Christopher Nolan's 'Momento Mori'. It could actually work.


    @bad09 - apparently the game is a first person perspective survival RPG, with an emphasis on melee combat. Sort of a more serious version of Dead Rising.
    Edited by neems at 24/02/11 @ 11:38

  • jablonski #28 1 year ago

    1st time I've seen that video.
    someone want to explain to me what is so fresh and novel about it?

    Standard zombie trailer + poncey (and hackneyed) car advert music and stylings = Hollywood interest?

    I think not.

  • mungolikebeans #29 1 year ago

    Fuck off Hollywood.

  • jebus #30 1 year ago

    "We all know that movies are not always what gamers want. Good games aren't good movies and good movies aren't good games. Look at Avatar."


    LOL - Avatar was a shit game and a shit film though

  • Freek #31 1 year ago

    Realistic outcome:

    Game will be Left 4 Dead but on an island.
    Movie will be Dawn of the Dead but on an island.

  • secombe #32 1 year ago

    What a crazy world we live in.

    Breaking it down: 'Hollywood' wants to buy the rights to a title and the premise of zombies attacking on a holiday island.

    Seriously? Anyone could script a zombie film on a tropical island without needing to spend millions linking it to a game which is currently a completely unknown quantity. Why not just 'reimagine' Zombi 2, at least that's a trend in Hollywood which appears to make good money.

    The only story here is a fabulous concept and execution of a trailer.

  • jablonski #33 1 year ago

    "Movie will be Dawn of the Dead but on an island."

    as eminusx said, have any of you even seen Zombi 2?

    Alongside 'Dawn', it's the seminal zombie film

  • Deckard1 #34 1 year ago

    I don't understand? Why hollywood would want to adapt it, its just like any other zombie thing. The trailer was so good because of its style not because of what it was about.

  • Dynamize #35 1 year ago

    Nice that they're getting proper recognition for the well-crafted trailer (well, someone's getting recognition, hopefully the right people).

    Optioning for a film though, seriously? I mean sure, as a Hollywood director/exec you're impressed and maybe a little embarrassed that some computer-Poles managed to elicit a greater emotional response from people with a game trailer featuring absolutely no dialogue, than a load of your films manage, but come on. It's a trailer for a game, a trailer that might not even feature any principal characters going on the fact that they all seem to get bit.

    Again though, kudos to the makers for being good enough at what they do to garner such interest. Techland/Deep Silver should totally take the money and run; reward for their work.

  • kangarootoo #36 1 year ago

    @Deckard1

    I totally agree. I expected things to be the other way around, with a film publisher wanting to speak to the guy/gal that directed it (like the Halo dude that did District 9).

  • makeamazing #37 1 year ago

    The thing is its not like showing something backwards is anything new...

    I thought it was a nice high quality CGI video, but thats all it was.

    Hollywood, well lets be honest when they are remaking films like Total Recall, and trying to make many classics that dont need re-making you know they are totally out of ideas.

  • Clive_Dunn #38 1 year ago

    You are all dead inside for not being emotionally moved by this trailer.

    Get it ? Dead ?

    I'll get my coat on..backwards.

  • SomaticSense #39 1 year ago

    If anything, it smacks of Deep Silver drumming all of this up just to get PR for it's game, and hopefully get all of the Hollywood bigwigs to go "what game trailer?", and to get them to actually have a look at it in the vain and miniscule hope of them getting a film deal to tie in with the release of the game.

    "Yeah, we have HOLLYWOOD FILM STUDIOS all over our arse right now! They said it's ok to publise the fact they are interested worldwide (screw contract secrecy), and that it's ok to get all their rival producers also interested in it in order for them to barge in and steal the rights to it at the last minute"

    Makes no sense.
    Edited by SomaticSense at 25/02/11 @ 03:22