Warner Bros.
While we continue to hope for a big-budget Godzilla vs. King Kong movie, there’s a good chance that we’ll see a different giant lizard fight punching a different giant ape on the big screen sooner. The long-anticipated movie based on the arcade game Rampage is gaining traction at New Line. Deadline is reporting that Dwayne Johnson (who just starred in another building-smashing movie for New Line, San Andreas) is on board to play a guy who “gets in the way” of the three central monsters who go city to city smashing everything in their path.
Never mind that it’d be more fun seeing Johnson play one of the three humans who mutate into the giant creatures (a giant werewolf joins the lizard and ape). The notion that he might instead play a hero who goes up against the monsters is more disappointing. The idea behind the game is that we’re in control of one of the beasts destroying building, bridges and tanks, so therefore we’re rooting for them and their damage. Maybe there doesn’t need to be a “happy” ending serving that concept with the monsters winning and ruling the world, but it should play mostly in favor of the disaster porn we enjoy when the control is in our hands.
One thing I could see the movie doing that might fit the way Deadline words it is having two of the monsters be the initial threat and then Johnson has to mutate into the third in order to fight them. Although it was never the object of the game, one of the best parts of Rampage is making your monster punch another one (controlled by your little brother, say), even if it made that monster’s power drain. The other best part is eating people, so hopefully we see some of that in the Rampage movie, as well.
Rampage is set to begin shooting next year from a script by Ryan Engle (Non-Stop), produced by Beau Flynn (San Andreas).
For anyone unfamiliar or wanting to get nostalgic, here’s a look at the original Rampage’s game play (with just one monster):
Related Topics: Dwayne Johnson
