I’m not going to pretend like I’m first on the boat here. The “Dead Island” video game trailer went viral a couple of days ago and has been burning up the internet ever since. Within a day, all the big studios were clamoring for a movie deal with the producers (who’d actually secured the film rights during the game’s development). The interesting thing is that what makes the trailer so unique – the fact that it’s in reverse – is not how the game plays out at all. The trailer is just so powerful, that that’s how they want to script the film. The reason I decided to post it though, was because this is EXACTLY what I’m talking about when I say “Find a unique angle to a genre.” Part of the reason this trailer has become so popular is because a) we’ve never seen a zombie film in reverse before, and b) we’ve never seen so much heart in a zombie film before (I guarantee, if you haven’t seen this already, that some of you will weep). That’s the kind of mindset you need to have when you sit down to write your idea. You need to ask the question, “What can I do differently?” This trailer shows the potential of what can happen when you ask that question. (And if I may – if the producers are listening – let me suggest a writer for this project. Oren Uziel, who’s written one great script told backwards as well as a zombie script, would be perfect for this). Enjoy!
