As I write this, my roommate is sitting on our couch playing Grand Theft Auto V, picking out which vehicles and guns to buy so he can continue wreaking havoc on the community of San Andreas. Speaking of San Andreas, that’s the name of the most recent film Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made, and speaking of Johnson and video games, the actor is set to star in an adaptation of a popular one, though it is of the 1980s arcade-style variety and not the GTA V home console variety.
According to Deadline, Johnson and his San Andreas producer Beau Flynn are teaming up again for an adaptation of Rampage (play it online right here if you like), an arcade game released back in 1986, when video games were confined to a big machine and a few buttons in a place called the arcade and you had to stand up to play them, though the game has since been brought to numerous other consoles in various forms.
New Line Cinema is keeping the plot of the film a secret for now, but the game revolves around three humans mutated into giant monsters — a King Kong-esque gorilla, a Godzilla-like lizard and a werewolf — that fight the military and wreak havoc on major cities and landmarks across North America. Johnson will presumably serves as the film’s hero, which is to say Rampage will likely take on a form similar to San Andreas, with loads of action and destruction but with monsters taking the place of that film’s massive earthquake.
A film adaptation of Rampage has been in the works for a few years now, as The Hollywood Reporter first reported in 2011 that New Line was looking to bring the Midway arcade game to the big screen. It appears the studio has finally found a story and its star, and with Johnson’s movies making all sorts of money in recent years I can only assume he and New Line will make out like bandits once again. Ryan Engle (Non-Stop) wrote the script, and New Line is currently working to find a director.
