Actually, I was expecting that someone here would post about this but to my surprise, no one did. Technically, it's old news now but it's still worth mentioning.

First off, watch the Dead Island announcement trailer again:

It's amazing, right? Well, that's what Lionsgate is adapting....I guess? Well, I'll keep it short but let me explain.

Shortly after this trailer reached 1 million views within 24 hours back in February, everyone wanted to get the rights for the movie version but they were already sold to the producers of The Mummy franchise nearly a year ago before the trailer was online.

A few days later, Deep Silver (the game's sole IP holder, whatever that means) announced that even though they received a lot of interest, they have not sold the rights yet because they don't want it to be of the same quality as the other video game movies. Therefore, they will only work with people who have a 'proven track record with blockbuster movies.'

7 months later in September and 3 weeks after the game's release, Lionsgate announced that they have bought the rights (I'm assuming from The Mummy's producers) for the movie version. In the announcement, they talked more about the trailer than the game itself, making a point to say how many views the trailer had, that it had 'built in brand recognition and franchise potential.'

If I got some info wrong or you want to point out something, please do so.

I can't talk about the game because I haven't played it yet (Due to having a strict limited budget on what games and DLC I can buy) other than hearing that the game's story is a basic We-have-to-get-the-hell-out-of-here plot mixed with Why-am-I-always-the-errand-boy subplot. That being said, if they plan on making a movie only based on the trailer, I can think of 2 possibilities:

CONCEPTS OF THE TRAILER

The trailer has a soft-and-sad-but-still-dramatic score which indicates it might be an Oscar-type film. It also has reverse slo-mo scenes and flashback scenes which indicates that half (or 1/4 or 1/3) of the movie's story is told in flashbacks. The game's world is an island which is perfect because you would get a higher level of panic if you're trapped in an island with zombies instead of a worldwide outbreak. This also has the possibility that even if the character(s) escape, it's just an isolated incident and the world's governments and leaders covers it up.

SHORT MOVIE

The trailer doesn't have much story; A family of 3 tries to survive the zombie attack but you already know that they are dead because they are not in the actual game AFAIK and because of the reverse slo-mo scenes.

Other than those 2 thoughts, I really can't see this being made unless you incorporate the game's actual plot into the script.

What are your thoughts? Obviously, this is a different approach in adapting a video game into a movie but will it work?

Please note that I am a general guy and don't know much about what happens behind the scenes in the movie and game industries so if there's something out there that's similar to this and I didn't know it, it's because of that.

Sources:

Deadline

Game Informer

Game Informer (Update)

Blistered Thumbs (Where I first found out about this.)