Occupant Entertainment and Deep Silver announced that they will be backing a screen adaptation of their 8-million copies sold, mega-hit “Dead Island”. Deep Silver is the video game publishing label for Koch Media, an independent theatrical and home entertainment productions company. Occupant is eyeing a Q1 production start date in 2015.

“Dead Island” revolves around a isolated beach resort over-ran by fast-paced, blood thirsty zombies. Apocalyptic zombie films have been a dime-a-dozen with today’s technology advancement relying more of CGI than practical effects, but Koch Media’s CEO Klemens Kundratitz says that “The “Dead Island” universe offers a rich and unique setting that can expand beyond the pure gaming experience. We are very much looking forward to seeing Dead Island open up to new audiences and showing off the fun everybody at Deep Silver has with this brand.”

My faith in Kundratitz’s statement is strong due to sheer fact that “JCVD”, “Before The Devil Knows Your Dead”, and “Moon” were solid, independent films in the last 5 years. Dead Island is set on a much bigger scale and in the grand scheme of things, Koch Media will have to step up their involvement and maybe help Occupant Entertainment some with more cash on the table. We’ve seen video game adaptations go south before. Of course, most failure credits reside with Uwe Boll, but there was also “DOA”, “Mortal Kombat Annihilation”, and “Max Payne.”

In June, “Dead Island 2” promo trailer was released and already has a million plus hits on Youtube and while the trailer is great and quirky, nothing out beats the announcement trailer for “Dead Island” with it’s dramatic, frightening reverse sequence.

Dead Island 2

Dead Island