With studios buying the film rights to Rubik’s Cubes and board games and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, it should come as no surprise that New Line Cinema is developing a movie based on a video game already owned by their sister company Warner Bros. Well, maybe it’s just a bit surprising since the game in question is Rampage, the 1986 Midway Games franchise where you punch buildings, eat the stuff behind those broken windows, and try to find the woman in the red dress. How is that a movie? Okay, there is a hint of a back story in which George (giant gorilla), Lizzie (giant lizard), and Ralph (giant werewolf) are mutated humans, and later installments of the game cast them as employees of Scumlabs who were experimented on by the unethical company.
The film is being produced by one of Brett Ratner‘s former assistants, so you know he’s experienced at dealing with unstable monsters.
John Rickard, who has acted as a co-producer on a wide range of New Line movies from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Final Destination to Horrible Bosses and next year’s tentpole Jack the Giant Killer, will produce and is meeting with writers to develop a story for the project. […] The project aims to take advantage of the title and the visuals of the game. [THR]
The title and the visuals of the game? Is that even necessary? Is it going to “take advantage” when it’s limiting the plot to make something that’s basically Cloverfield with different monsters? King Kong is already in the public domain (or at least it was in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. RKO General Inc., et al.) and werewolves and giant lizards are from folklore. You don’t need to adhere to the details of the video game’s backstory to make a cool monster movie with those characters. They’re already free to use.
On the upside, if a “Rampage” movie is anything like the game, it’ll teach us the names of several more cities in California we’ll never visit. So that’s something.