When there’s no more room in low budget film-making the dead shall walk the mainstream. Yes, the fleshing hordes have come a long way from the days of Romero and Fulci. 2010 saw zomboids go prime time with The Walking Dead and Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster is attached to World War Z. Now it’s reported Universal exec Sean Daniel bought the film rights to a video game entitled Dead Island.

Bloody Disgusting reported, prematurely, on a film being in the works (quoting from Hitflix):

“Daniel recently established The Sean Daniel Company, and they’re the ones who bought the rights to the game. Techland, the Polish developer for the game, has got to be dancing in the streets right now. This is a game that had been delayed and that had fallen off the radar after being announced a few years ago. As soon as that trailer, created by Axis Animation, popped up online, Dead Island went from ‘troubled game that’s taken forever to come out’ to ‘game everyone will play this fall because the awareness on it is gigantic.’”

But there’s been counter-claims by video-game production Deep Silver via Playstation Universe:

“Lot of rumors have been about regarding a Dead Island movie, and we wanted to let you guys know that we haven’t signed on with anyone – yet! And rest assured, a high-quality movie is the #1 thing we’re concerned about for a film adaptation.”

The Dead Island video-game trailer was released last week and was very impressive. But is the zombie genre getting stale? The reverse action and sad piano tune hooked viewers but what beyond that? Should films these days really be dictated by hype? More than likely Hollywood smelled blood and a canny business opportunity when they gauged the online reaction. But do so at their peril. After all, the game the itself might be total shit.

Check out the trailer below. It’s pretty excellent. Expect this game to sell like hot cakes!

Source: Bloody Disgusting. & PlayStation Universe