The first trailer for Dead Rising: Watchtower, the episodic film based on Capcom’s popular Dead Rising series of open-world zombie kill-a-thons, has finally been revealed, and it’s…pretty underwhelming.
Much fanfare was made about Emmy award-winning funnyman Rob Riggle landing the role of series protagonist Frank West a few months back, and although he seems perfect for the role, Riggle is relegated to a glorified cameo in this teaser with no involvement in any of the showcased action setpieces, appearing only briefly at the end to deliver a few quips and remind people that yes, this is a Dead Rising movie and not a SyFy Original zombie flick.
Most of the teaser focused on the exploits of original characters played by Jesse Metcalfe and Meghan Ory as they attempt to escape a zombie outbreak resulting from a botched cancer vaccine (Metcalfe’s seen wearing a shirt emblazoned with a Servbot at one point, which is an admittedly nice touch). Astute viewers may be able to glimpse Epic Meal Time‘s Harley Morenstein briefly during the sizzle reel near the end of the trailer, although the full extent of his role in the movie is as-of-yet unknown.
Dead Rising is a franchise that seems like it would lend itself well to the silver screen, but only time will tell if Watchtower manages to side-step the curse of video game-based films. Unless the final product features 500% more Frank West, I’m going to keep my expectations low for this one.
Dead Rising: Watchtower will launch on March 27th, exclusively on Sony’s Crackle streaming service.
