I have very clear memories from the late '80s and early '90s of seeing, in various locations, an arcade game called RAMPAGE. It looked really cool to me – players controlled a kaiju, and the objective was simply to destroy things and eat people. There was a trio of monsters to choose from: a gorilla called George, a lizard creature called Lizzie, and Ralph the werewolf. I don't think I ever actually played RAMPAGE, but I always enjoyed seeing it around.
Since that arcade game's debut in 1986, there have been a handful of sequels released on different platforms, stories which added in elements like alien invasion and time travel. If adapted to the screen, RAMPAGE has some good franchise potential, and this is potential that has been noticed by New Line Cinema.
The studio is currently enjoying worldwide success with its earthquake disaster movie SAN ANDREAS, and they're looking to repeat some of that success by re-teaming with SAN ANDREAS producer Beau Flynn and its star Dwayne Johnson to make a RAMPAGE movie.
George, Lizzie, and Ralph are coming to the big screen, and they're going to have to deal with The Rock trying to impede their destructive missions. He's likely to cause them more trouble than anything the games ever threw at them.
The screenplay for the adaptation is being written by NON-STOP's Ryan Engle, who was hired for the gig three years ago. That's plenty of time to craft what will hopefully be an awesome kaiju movie.
I'm all for as many giant monster movies getting made as possible, and this one is made all the more enticing by the presence of Dwayne Johnson. I am now fully hyped for RAMPAGE, but it's still a ways off – filming isn't expected to begin until next summer. In the meantime, the search is on for a director.
SAN ANDREAS co-star Alexandra Daddario