As Pixels prepares to duke it out with Southpaw at the box office this weekend, New Line is bringing the team behind this summer’s San Andreas back together for video game adaptation Rampage. Brad Peyton is in talks with the studio to helm the project, which will reteam him with star Dwayne Johnson and producer Beau Flynn.
Based on the ’80s Midway Arcade game, Rampage will center on one man (Johnson) standing between us and total annihilation as three monsters – a gorilla, a lizard and a wolf – create utter havoc as they tear across North America. Giant, fantastical creatures seems like a logical next step for the actor formerly known as The Rock, who proved unshaken by the worst Mother Nature had to offer.
Peyton has proven extremely capable at staging scenes of CGI carnage without losing the humans at the heart of the action, so he’s a strong choice to helm a live-action tentpole like Rampage.
This is the third collaboration for Peyton, Johnson, Flynn and New Line Cinema after San Andreas and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, both of which proved to be substantial box office hits. The former has grossed over $460 million to become Warner Bros.’ highest release of the year so far as well as 2015’s most successful original live-action blockbuster, while the latter hauled in $335 million.
Deadline, which confirmed Peyton’s involvement in this project, also reports that New Line is so high on the pairing of Peyton, Johnson and Flynn that it’s also trying to put the pieces together for a San Andreas sequel, though what that would look like is still up in the air. Needless to say, the desire is there, so it will probably happen soon enough.
Johnson is keeping busy with an array of high-profile projects. His HBO comedy Ballers has been renewed for a second season, he’s currently shooting action-comedy Central Intelligence with Kevin Hart, and he’s lining up to shoot Fast & Furious 8 before jumping into Rampage next year, with an eye to getting the pic into theaters for 2017.
