Movies
Film Deal Transpires in Aftermath of ‘Dead Island’ Trailer Hype
Earlier this week we all had our minds blown by the announcement trailer for Dead Island, an open world video game in development by Techland for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The brutal and quite sad trailer flashes reverse footage of a zombie attack revealing the destruction of a family. Easily one of the most buzzed about games of the year, you can watch the footage inside (editor’s note: the footage and characters may not even represent the actual game).
I expected a film deal, but not this fast. Producer/Universal exec Sean Daniel (National Lampoon’s Animal House, Dazed and Confused, Tombstone, The Mummy, The Wolfman) scored film rights, reports Hitfix: “Daniel recently established The Sean Daniel Company, and they’re the ones who bought the rights to the game. Techland, the Polish developer for the game, has got to be dancing in the streets right now. This is a game that had been delayed and that had fallen off the radar after being announced a few years ago. As soon as that trailer, created by Axis Animation, popped up online, Dead Island went from ‘troubled game that’s taken forever to come out’ to ‘game everyone will play this fall because the awareness on it is gigantic.’ ”
Terror. Violence. Madness. Bedlam. A holiday paradise gone mad. A tropical island turns into total chaos after a mysterious zombie outbreak. Cut off from the rest of the world, the player’s only chance to survive is to fight to the death and find a way to escape from the island.
Exclusives
‘Home Bodies’ Image & Poster Introduce Isolated Twins in Sci-Fi Nightmare [Fantasia 2026]
Sci-fi thriller Home Bodies is set to unsettle audiences at the 30th edition of Fantasia, and our exclusive image introduces a peculiar pair of twins at the center.
Home Bodies makes its World Premiere July 23, at 9:30 PM at Cinéma du Musée in Montreal, with the filmmakers and cast in attendance.
An eerie new poster created by Justin Erickson of Phantom City Creative heralds the film’s premiere.
In the film, “Red and Blue, twins raised in total isolation by an automated house, live according to the rules set by Papa, a disembodied voice behind a locked door who provides food, shelter, entertainment, and order. Their carefully controlled world is disrupted by the arrival of Pal, an enigmatic humanoid stranger whose presence begins to fracture the only life the twins have ever known.”
It’s a premise that calls another Canadian creeper to mind and has us intrigued: Pin.
Emma Ho, Ian Ho, and Ess Hödlmoser star.
Home Bodies is directed and produced by Casey Walker, who returns to Fantasia more than a decade after his horror-comedy A Little Bit Zombie screened at the festival in 2012. He’s since gone on to produce a number of defining Canadian genre films like In a Violent Nature, The Void, and Pyewacket.
“I started my career in Montreal and Fantasia has been part of my life ever since,” said Walker. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to return to where it all started and share Home Bodies on such a special anniversary of the festival.“
Karen Harnisch (Infinity Pool, Sleeping Giant) also produces. Executive producers are Todd Brown (The Raid, Mandy) and Chad Archibald (undertone).
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