Movie based on arcade game Rampage to be “emotional, scary, and real”

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

So this is unexpected. I mean, I was going to see the RAMPAGE movie no matter what, since I love seeing monsters f*ck shit up, and also because I loved the game as a kid (especially its sequel WORLD TOUR). However, I have to admit, this has gotten me a bit more excited for the project.

At an LA Press Junket talking to We Got This Covered, director Brad Peyton (SAN ANDREAS) talked to them a bit about the tone of the new RAMPAGE adaptation starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (who previously starred in the videogame adaptation DOOM). Here's what he had to say:

With Rampage, we are using our love of the original game as our inspiration…It’s going to be a lot more emotional, a lot scarier and a lot more real than you’d expect. So you look at that original concept about a lab that affects these animals and makes them rampage, and that’s the nugget. If they called me tomorrow to do Call of Duty, I wouldn’t want to play any of the Call of Duty games. I’d have to come up with something that deserves to be its own thing. That’s where a lot of these movies can go wrong.

I’m really excited about Rampage. It’s a monster film…obviously, it’s a much bigger movie and it’s meant for a broader audience, but there still horror elements, there’s still a monster movie at the core. And I get to work with Dwayne [Johnson] again, I’m so excited about it.

Hmmm. Not sure it fits the tone of the original arcade game (which was campy and tongue-in-cheek), but that's what makes his comments all the more interesting. Let's hope Peyton and his screenwriters Carlton Cuse and Ryan Condal can pull it off. The other interesting thing to note is that Peyton mentions "a lab that affects these animals", which means that the rampaging monsters might actually be animals rather than people that they are in the games (in fact, when you lost in the game you'd shrink to a naked person and scuttle embarrassed off screen). Not sure how I feel about that. 

He also confirmed that the three main characters of the popular arcade game, Lizzy (the Godzilla rip-off), George (the King Kong rip-off), and Ralph (the Werewolf, I guess) will be in the film, which is cool (if expected). And while SAN ANDREAS, in my opinion, was some hot garbage, I at least loved the destruction in it. Let's hope, despite everything else, that the RAMPAGE film will be at least as – if not more – brutal.

So what do you guys think? And who was your favorite character? I personally loved being Lizzy.