Arguably one of the lesser-known video game adaptations currently incubating in development, New Line’s Rampage movie is quietly lumbering toward the silver screen. Partnering with his San Andreas director Brad Peyton, it is Dwayne Johnson that is set to headline the monstrous creature feature, which just recently recruited two new writers.
Taking up the mantle from Ryan Eagle, Johnson revealed via his ever-popular Instagram feed that Carlton Cuse and Ryan Condal have been enlisted to rewrite the script, with the latter scribe completing the San Andreas reunion. Cuse and Condal will now be tasked with wrangling the ’80s Midway Arcade title into a bona fide CG-laden blockbuster, with the core premise seeing three grossly mutated creatures – one gorilla, one alligator and a snarling wolf – causing a path of destruction all across the US of A.
If San Andreas played fast and loose with scientific data and California’s mythic earthquake (AKA The Big One), then Rampage will send Johnson, Peyton and now Condal in totally uncharted sci-fi territory. Expressing his own excitement to spearhead the project, here’s what The Rock had to share about the project as it begins to take shape.
“We have a shot to raise the bar and make something cool with this one as the basic storyline is three mutated gigantic monsters (Silverback, Alligator and Wolf) destroy major cities and landmarks across the US,” says Johnson in an Instagram post announcing the new writing duo. “This summer I’ll spend time at the San Diego Wildlife Preserve as well as with Anti-Poaching Units from Africa for my research. If you were a fan of the video game like I was, then you KNOW how bad ass and fun this movie can be. I’ll try not to screw it up.”
Whether Dwayne Johnson will anchor the film in a similar vein to his search-and-rescue pilot from San Andreas is up for question, though rest assured that Rampage just took one gigantic step toward hitting the big screen.
