Lionsgate has optioned the rights to "Dead Island," a video game that became a sensation when its trailer was released, the company announced Tuesday.
The studio bought the rights from Deep Silver.
The "Dead Island" trailer was released in February and immediately went viral on the internet. It's graphic, dramatic, gory — and cinematic. The story is about a father, armed with an ax, who tries to protect his family from invading zombies.
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The trailer got more than a million hits in its first 24 hours online and nearly 10 million over two days.
According to Lionsgate, 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 vicious and growing legions of the undead."
As TheWrap reported in February, Sean Daniel ("The Mummy," "Tombstone," "Dazed and Confused") is developing the project through his SeanDaniel Company. Earlier, Daniel was working with Union Entertainment on the project.
Stefan Sonnenfeld also is producing.
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.