*UPDATE BELOW*

A few days ago, a trailer for a video game called Dead Island was released. Before too long, it was everywhere you looked and people were clearly excited by what they were seeing (Read: Must Watch: Haunting Trailer For Zombie Video Game ‘Dead Island’ Will Leave You Speechless).

The game is an open-world action RPG video game set on an island where a zombie outbreak occurs, leaving the player to use what they can find to survive and fight off the relentless corpses. No gameplay is shown in it and as far as anyone can tell it has nothing to do with the actual game, but it’s so well-done you just can’t help but be impressed.

Because of the popularity of this trailer, Sean Daniel has decided not to wait around and see how well the actual game goes. The producer and his banner, The Sean Daniel Company, have acquired the rights to turn the game into a movie.

Daniel has been around a long time and his name is attached to some popular movies like Dazed and Confused, Tombstone, Mallrats, The Mummy movies, and The Wolfman.

One thing is for sure, Dead Island has a lot to live up to; this popularity could be a curse disguised as a blessing for developer Techland. Even though no one has seen any gameplay, the trailer was such a hit that people might have a higher expectation for the final product than can be reached.

*UPDATE* OK, this may all be a little misleading. IGN is reporting that no one in fact has acquired the rights to make a Dead Island movie yet after Deep Silver, owners of the property, sent out a press release to clarify.

The company shares that they’re looking through a “vast amount of inquiries” but have not struck a deal with anyone to adapt their game. Their primary reason for being cautious? Quality — they don’t want a generic movie to be the result; they want it to be faithful to the game and its fans.

In the statement released, Deep Silver said “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. We would therefore be honored to work with someone who already has a proven track record with blockbuster movies.”

[Source: HitFix]