Dead Island shambles to the big screen! Feature film in the works
‘Dead Island’ certainly sunk its teeth into the global charts recently, and with sales currently topping the 2 million mark, it’s hardly surprising that Hollywood has taken an interest in Techlands new IP.
The debut CG trailer which lit up the internet earlier this year with its both harrowing and realistic take on a zombie attack at a hotel on the fictional island of Banoi (all in beautiful slow motion), has seemingly caught the eye of not just eager gamers, but also the big wigs over at Lionsgate!
Announced earlier today, Lionsgate has acquired the rights to the big screen release, and while only in early pre-production, this is certainly great news for the fans of the game. Now the question is, how long till we get news of a sequel?
Full press release below -
27 September 2011
LIONSGATE BRINGS DEAD ISLAND TO LIFE ON THE BIG SCREEN
Feature Film Adaptation Of Deep Silver’s Zombie Sensation In Development At The Studio
London, UK, September 27, 2011– LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), a leading global entertainment company, today announced that it has optioned film rights from Deep Silver to develop a feature inspired by Dead Island, which became a viral media sensation when its haunting, artful trailer launched in February 2011. The announcement was made by Lionsgate’s co-COO and Motion Picture Group President Joe Drake.
Dead Island is a global brand first introduced through a teaser trailer that told the story of a family on vacation at a tropical resort who is besieged by zombies. Told in a stark, non-linear fashion, the wrenching trailer captured worldwide fan attention and unanimous critical praise upon its debut, receiving over one million hits in its first 24 hours online, and nearly 10 million views by two days after its debut. Wired Magazine, College Humor and G4TV all called it the best video game trailer of all time, with G4TV adding “The Dead Island trailer is the best trailer I have ever seen in my life. The best video game trailer. The best movie trailer. The best anything trailer.” The trailer went on to win the Golden Lion in Cannes at the International Festival of Creativity, the advertising industry’s highest honor, and it was featured by Adweek on their annual list of the World’s Best Commercials.
The video game Dead Island was published by Deep Silver for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. It was released in the United States on September 6th, 2011 and was the number one selling game both in the U.S. and the U.K. upon its local releases. The game has sold over two million units to date.
The game centers on vacationers whose island paradise becomes a living hell when a zombie outbreak quickly spreads. Cut off from the rest of the world, the survivors have only the available materials and the island’s natural “weapons” to protect themselves from the viscous and growing legions of the undead. In addition to the award-winning trailer and video game, the Dead Island intellectual property will be simultaneously developed by Deep Silver into forthcoming graphic novels, novels and other extensions.
Like the trailer that will serve as its primary creative inspiration, the film DEAD ISLAND will be an innovation of the zombie genre because of its focus on human emotion, family ties and non-linear storytelling. Said Drake of the property’s acquisition, “Like the hundreds of journalists and millions of fans who were so passionate and vocal about the Dead Island trailer, we too were awestruck.” He continued, “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.”
The film DEAD ISLAND is currently in the early development stage with producers attached. Sean Daniel (THE MUMMY, TOMBSTONE, DAZED AND CONFUSED) will spearhead production through his Sean Daniel Company. A veteran producer with global franchises under his belt, Daniel is to be joined in producing by Stefan Sonnenfeld, who has been a pioneer in the post production field, using the process as a platform to create a unique visual brand with directors including J.J Abrams, Michael Bay and Gore Verbinski. Jason Brown of The Sean Daniel Company and Missy Papageorge for Sonnenfeld’s Sunny Field Productions are executive producing, with Sarah Perlman of Sunny Field Productions serving as co-producer.
Alli Shearmur, Lionsgate’s President of Motion Picture Production and Development is overseeing the project at the studio, with Jim Miller, SVP of Production and Development. Rob McEntegart, Senior EVP of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, negotiated the deal with Deep Silver’s U.S. attorney Ed Labowitz.
Film Review: The Smurfs (2011)
Note: – The rating for this film is based on the genre ‘Family’ and taken other family films into consideration.
The Smurfs are lovable little creatures. Blue; live in mushrooms and pretty much 99 children of one Smurf…known as Papa. Obviously people know this since The Smurfs are one of the oldest children’s TV shows. I remember watching the cartoon but I do not remember a lot of it. One thing that does stick out is the names that they all got. They are named after their main trait such as Clumsy. The film does just that, keeping all the original elements clean.
You can tell instantly that this film won’t change the world. It’s a family film and it is ok for mistakes. But it does need to tick the boxes for a family film. It needs to make sure that not only does it entertain children but also grown ups, as they will be watching with their kids and may be long-term fans of the show. The film does just that. It gives out solid laugh for everyone watching.
We have the evil Gargamel bent on capturing the Smurfs and then extracting their essence to become the most powerful wizard. However his plans go wrong as the Smurfs manage to run away with a few of them falling into a portal leading them to New York. It is here that they encounter Patrick and Grace Winslow and stay with them until the next ‘Blue Moon’. Gargamel has then managed to get through the portal with his weird, yet funny cat. The Smurfs then try to get back to their homeland whiles trying to keep away from Gargamel along the way.
When looking at the special effects and computer graphics, it’s clear to see that the Smurfs seem a little out of place, as does the cat does when it does something a little abnormal to what cats would usually do. The cat’s scenes are the most obvious as it stands completely out of place giving that annoying feeling that they should have fixed that. However seeing that this is a family film, these can be pushed aside.
We have Jonathan Winters (Papa), Alan Cumming (Gutsy), Katy Perry (Smurfette), Fred Armisen (Brainy), George Lopez (Grouchy) and Anton Yelchin (Clumsy) as the main Smurfs group that arrives at New York. It would seem that the makers of the film wanted to bring in things that the younger audience may associate with, such as when Smurfette suggests ‘I Kissed a Smurf and I Liked It?’ you can clearly see that this is a reference to Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’. There are other references within the film, but most are not as obvious as the one shown.
Overall, this is a fun family film for all to enjoy and would be one for the children to remember in the future. It is not a film that one would put highly on their list nor applaud for an outstanding film. It is generally one to enjoy.
Mark Wahlberg is Nathan Drake
Max Payne film star to take lead role in another video game adaptation.
Mark Wahlberg in an interview with MTV has stated that director David O. Russell is currently writing the script and plans to start shooting the film next summer. Wahlberg never explicitly stated he would be playing Nathan Drake but mentioning the intention for Joe Pesci to play his uncle and Robert De Niro to play his father would lead you to believe so. We will have to wait and hope that Russell and his planned cast give the game a good adaptation but with previous films based on video games usually being big flops there won’t be any high expectations.
The MTV interview can be seen here
X-Men: First Class Announced
Time to head back to the time when the X-Men weren’t full of mutants. There were only 2 friends who would start a rivalry that will shake the very foundations of the world.
Camp Rock 2 The Final Jam Review
The Disney Channel knock out another original movie in the form of a sequel to Camp Rock. Its time to see just what this summer brings for our Camp Rockers.
Another superhero movie – Iron Fist
|
With almost 3,000 2972 characters in the Marvel universe, I didn’t think they’d attempt to make a film for every single one. But it certainly seems that way after it was revealed by Deadline that there will be a feature-length film for Iron Fist, a character who’s not exactly well-known out of all the Marvel characters, but popular with hardcore comic fans.
Iron Fist’s power comes from when he drops his fists into the molten heart of a dragon and receiving training to concentrate chi. In the Marvel universe, Tony Stark (Iron Man) labels him a lethal weapon. This could mean an even more intricate storyline, included with the films centred around The Hulk, Nick Fury and the Avengers cast.
The film, one of the first to be produced under Disney’ ownership of the great comic company, is set to be written by Rich Wilkes, known for his work on the xXx series, so Iron Fist’s first silver screen appearance is bound to be action packed.
No word yet on who’s to star in this latest superhero adaptation, but it’s bound to be a big star
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Review
As I write this I find myself dumbfounded on where to even begin describing my experience with “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”. Dumbfounded not as to whether or not the film is good but rather how Hollywood can make awful films out of any exaggerated anime, comic book or video game based property and yet produce a film containing nearly all of these elements to create one of the best films of the year.
The tale of Scott Pilgrim is not a complicated one. Scott is a 23 year old Canadian hipster/loser. His inability to hold jobs keeps him mooching off of his gay roommate (Kieran Culkin), his band is pretty mediocre, and he’s in a newly formed relationship with his only 17 year old fangirl (Ellen Wong) purely out of desperation to make his life suck just a little bit less.
Then he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a girl whom he finds himself instantly drawn to. After a rough meeting the two hook up, finding themselves in a relationship but leaving Scott to deal with her emotional baggage. Ramona’s complicated love life has left her with 7 exes obsessed with controlling her love life. If Scott wants to stay with her, he’ll have take on all 7 of them in combat.
First off, let’s make no mistakes here; the premise of Scott Pilgrim, from the original comic book series written by Bryan Lee O’Malley to this big screen adaptation is absolutely ridiculous. Similar to how the comic is written however, there’s nothing wrong with that. Nearly every moment of this movie is exaggerated in some way as if to remind viewer that this story is not the real world as we know it.
From the video game tropes featured in the story, to the onomatopoeia’s accompanying every sound effect, the world that Scott and his friends inhabit is unique. The movie opens up with the Universal Studios theme and logo playing in 8-bit and it is at this point that you know what you’re in for and whether or not you’re going to accept it or not.
Despite the high energy fun of every single fight in the film however, the real star of this movie is the acting performance of every single actor involved. Proving me wrong about my presumptions of his lack of range, Michael Cera’s performance as Scott is almost just as loveable as the character is in his titular series. He may be stupid but he’s well intentioned. Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Ramona Flowers deserves just as much praise, appearing a bit too aloof at the start but gradually growing into her role making the chemistry between her and Cera work.
Overall the entire cast did an excellent job with their roles but the actors playing Ramona’s 7 evil exes were undoubtedly the strongest contenders. I won’t spoil their appearances but each of them is fully developed human beings with genuine substance to their back stories and personalities. With this movie’s ability to juggle 7 villains while maintaining its perfect balancing act throughout the entire less than 2 hour viewing time, there is no excuse for any comic based movie villain to lack depth in adaptations ever again.
In short, Scott Pilgrim is a blast. Its style of parodying hipster and geek culture makes for some of the most memorable comedic writing I’ve seen in quite some time, shooting for laughs from the entire crowd but really striking a chord with anybody that gets the abundance of references made within the movie. Yet the drama never comes off as an afterthought, making the conclusion just as satisfying as the journey to it. The first third is a little bit slow and due to the references to specific fandoms (Sci-fi, comic books, video games, etc.), it may be destined to be more of a love it/hate it kind of film. If you can stick with it though, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World may end up on your best of the year lists, or most original of the year if nothing else.
4/5
The Sorcerers Apprentice Review
Bruckheimer produces a movie based on Artherian legend in modern times. Does Disney push out to a teen audience this time? Or does it squander another children’s movie with far too dramatic overtones?
Simon Pegg in MI:4?
Five months ago, Paramount sealed a deal with Tom Cruise for an addition to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Now, it looks as if Simon Pegg (the ginger-bearded one from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) is set jump back into the action.
He’ll be bringing back the character Benji Dunn, the lab technician, alongside a rumoured Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jami Gertz. With the secrecy behind the story by J.J. Abrams and the fact that the move hasn’t yet been greenlit, it’s hard to tell what role Pegg’s character will play. However being reunited with Abrams for a second major Hollywood film (the first being Star Trek), I think it’s safe to say he’ll bring some light humour to the ever-serious Mission: Impossible series.
The fourth part is being directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Iron Giant), who is sure to stir things up at Paramount Pictures. Cruise is also producing alongside Abrams and Paul Wagner, according to THR. Many thought it would conflict with Cruise’ filming of Knight and Day, the upcoming action comedy movie, where he stars with Cameron Diaz. However, with a release date of December 2011, it seems he’ll have perfectly enough time to film yet another action film.
Eclipse Review
The cult craze hits its third instalment, this time with the vampires and werewolves uniting. But is this films bark worse than its bite? Take a look at the review right here.
