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If you’re into video games too, you probably saw the CG trailer for Dead Island over the weekend and, much like the rest of the internet, went bananas over it. It was even reported that, despite the game being years away from completion, the movie rights had already been snatched up on the heels of that amazing, artistic, gameplay-less trailer.
However, it’s not true. Despite rampant speculation, Deep Silver, developers of Dead Island announced that they have no interest in selling the film rights to Dead Island as quickly as this, as they believe it would dilute what they believe to be an IP that can stand on its own legs. They would be interested in seeing it as a movie, but only if it’s done with the quality they feel never comes to video game movies. This is fairly amazing. In an age where the film rights to anything resembling an original video game get snapped up in an instant, here’s one developer that realizes that nothing good will come of a Dead Island move. Best case scenario, it’s just one more zombie movie, but on a tropical island. Worst case scenario is Survival of the Dead. Read below the jump for Deep Silver’s full press release on the matter.
[Via ComingSoon, Cinematical]
LARKSPUR, CA – February 19, 2011 – Since video games publisher Deep Silver revealed the upcoming game Dead Island™ this week, its accompanying promotional trailer has created a tremendous amount of buzz in the internet community and has been hailed a “Must See” throughout.
As a result, Deep Silver has received a massive amount of interest in the film adaptation rights to the Dead Island IP. Contrary to rumors that have been circulating, neither the film rights nor any other licenses have yet been sold by Deep Silver, which is the sole IP holder of the Dead Island brand.
While no decision has been made yet regarding Dead Island’s movie rights, Deep Silver is currently looking through a vast amount of inquiries. Key for the decision is a focus on the quality of the resulting motion picture: “We are looking for quality above all else for a movie based on Dead Island. We want to do it the right way as film realizations of games (or vice versa) usually fail to deliver what the fans were looking for. We will not go down this route with Dead Island. Deep Silver profoundly believes in the quality and value of its Dead Island IP,” says Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Deep Silver’s parent company Koch Media. “We would therefore be honored to work with someone who already has a proven track record with blockbuster movies.”