Dead Island Origins



A multi-part film or miniseries on Gamesradar.com fully sponsored by the studio Deep Silver as a joke prequel for the upcoming game, Dead Island. Featuring all of the castmembers of the Talkradar Podcast, the series was essentially made to advertise the game for the developers, as well as throw some money the way of the website, but the T-Dar crew was given full range to shoot, say, and script whatever they wanted, leading the guys to refer to it as "Talkradar: The Movie" on the Podcast.

The story opens on a strangely deserted San Francisco,CA at magazine publisher Future US' corporate headquarters, as editors Brett Elston, Mikel Reparaz, and Tyler Wilde realize the entire office is empty except for the three of them (which they attribute to the fact that there must be an open bar somewhere that they weren't invited to). After not noticing their co-worker, Lizzie Cuevas, is now a grey-skinned zombie when she pukes an entire pitcher of blood on their floor, Brett gets a mysterious message inviting them on an all expenses paid trip to Dead Island. Mikel tries to talk Brett and Tyler out of it, because the website will only be updated and published if they stay at work and do it. Suddenly, the internet goes down with a mysterious "Bloop" noise. With nothing else to do, the team decides to take the e-mail up on its offer. The opening ends with the Twist Ending reveal that Associate Editor Chris Antista, who could be heard and not seen for the rest of the first video, is ALREADY a zombie, and is eating human entrails out of a paper bowl.

A teaser trailer posted on Gamesradar.com on Friday, July 15, 2011.

Episode 1 posted Tuesday, July 19, 2011.

New episodes will post every Tuesday until the series completes.

The awesome soundtrack was fully donated, free of charge, to the gang by "Spaghetti-Western Disco Rock Opera" trio Bella Novela off their new album "The Archeress", dropping in October.

This Web Original Miniseries uses the following tropes:

 * Deadpan Snarker - Every character. Especially Brett and Tyler.
 * Ghost Town - San Francisco has become this, along with the Future US headquarters
 * Refuge in Audacity - The Talkradar team scripted the whole thing. This is pretty much assured.
 * Reluctant Warrior - Mikel would rather stay behind and work on the website than discover the "adventure" awaiting them on Dead Island.
 * Zombie Apocalypse - Obviously.