The Rock goes on a ‘Rampage’ into another action-disaster Film The live-action Rampage film get's a start date

Rampage game screen

On February 19, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announced the movie adaptation of the 1986 video game Rampage. The actor uploaded a photo of himself and some writing crew members around the writing table to Instagram.

Photo via @TheRock on Instagram

Photo of the cast and writing crew of  the Rampage film including Dwayne Johnson.

In Rampage players can play the game as either George the gorilla, Lizzie the dino-lizard, or Ralph the werewolf. The premise of the game is the same as the name, Rampage. Players go stage by stage attempting to destroy the town whilst simultaneously trying to avoid being stopped by military forces. Total destruction is the end goal. The question here is, which characters will be for the total destruction, and which characters will be against it?

Johnson states his character is going to be a primatologist, and the head of an anti-poaching unit in Rwanda. As of now, there is no news as to if the film will take place in Rwanda. Johnson’s character being a primatologist could lead down some interesting alleyways as far as the plot is concerned. Could Johnson be the obvious choice of hero in the film? Or could he actually play the bad guy for once and secretly be the one responsible for the monsters in question? Johnson might have been involved with creating the monsters as a means to stop the poachers? Could the monsters have escaped and it’s up to Johnson to save the day? All we have is speculation currently. 

So far confirmed for the film; are actresses Marley Shelton (Grindhouse) and Naomie Harris (Skyfall) and rumored to be cast is actor Joe Manganiello (True Blood). There is no info yet as to what their characters will be and how heavily they will be involved in the storytelling. Manganiello would be the obvious choice for the bad guy in the film, but having Shelton as a villain would definitely be a great watch.

Screenshot of the original Rampage videogame.

With four sequels to the original game, this could lead to a new series in the works. Could this be the next Transformers series? Or might the studio turn the film into more of a disaster flick, in the same vein as The Day After Tomorrow or San Andreas, and have it be a one-off? Either way, Rampage is already theoretically shaping up to be a great summer blockbuster. After dropping a few poorly placed ‘Rampage’ puns, Johnson announces that filming will begin in April.

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Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is a fan of the finger guns and former Keystone-award winning editor for Live Wire Lancaster.