Movies

Film studio Lionsgate has optioned the rights to create a movie based on Deep Silver's zombie action RPG Dead Island, with the game’s award-winning announcement trailer set to "serve as its primary creative inspiration”. More >

Replacement Uncharted movie director Neil Burger has revealed that he is going back to Naughty Dog's adventure series for inspiration. Burger, who directed The Limitless and Illusionist, took up the reins following original director David O. Russells' exit. Burger has discarded Russell's plans to cast Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake at the head of a family of antique traders, stressing that the game is a rich source of ideas as it stands. "Mainly we're beginning from scratch and going back to the video game," Burger told Crave Online. "Because there's a lot of cool stuff, actually, from the videogame, if you know it… It's really one of the most cinematic video games, and one that has really developed characters. So, you know, there's a lot of cool, really intense things that, if they work for the film's story, I want to use them." The news will come as a relief to Uncharted fans hoping for a more authentic experience at the cinema.

US 3DS owners will have to wait for the Nintendo Video application, which was released on the eShop yesterday but is currently set for a US release later this summer. In the meantime, US movie streaming service Netflix is to launch an app of its own on the 3DS download store tomorrow. An oddly-worded announcement says that full-length 3D movies will soon be available to US 3DS owners, but doesn't specify if that will be through Netflix - which does not currently offer 3D movies - or a separate app.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Gigi Pritker have optioned the movie rights to the 1978 arcade game. Quite what form the eventual film will take is anyone's guess, but we're assuming it starts off pretty slowly and gradually picks up the pace ahead of a frantic conclusion. Di Bonaventura, who has previous in adapting 80s pop culture icons having produced GI Joe and Transformers, has also picked up the movie rights to Asteroids.

SystemLink reports that the above trademark was filed in the US last December and approved last month, and has traced it back to the Grand Theft Auto publisher. Rockstar's Dan Houser told the Hollywood Reporter in April: "We love movies, but we also love games and that is what we remain focused on. If we were to attempt to make a movie, we would like to make it ourselves, or at least work in collaboration with the best talent." Ubisoft set up its own movie wing, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, in May.

Deadline reports that Seth Gordon, director of the 2007 documentary about Steve Wiebe's Donkey Kong world record attempt The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters, is to remake WarGames, the 1983 Matthew Broderick film about a computer prodigy who inadvertently hacks into US military systems and almost starts World War III. Wouldn't he prefer a nice game of chess?