Giant rampaging monsters are hot right now thanks to Kong: Skull Island, and New Line is hoping this trend continues into 2018, when it releases Rampage: a film based on the classic arcade game about a trio of massive mutant creatures, wreaking havoc on major cities. And even if the monster movie heat has cooled by then, New Line knows it still has the star power of Dwayne Johnson to sell the movie.
Rampage stars the ubiquitous Johnson as an animal-lover who - of course - is the only one who can stop the movie's trio of monsters: hyper-aggressive over-sized versions of a wolf, a gorilla and a crocodile modeled directly after the creatures in the cheesy original video game. No monster movie would be complete without a few human antagonists thrown into the mix as well, and Rampage has settled on an actress to portray its primary human baddie.
According to THR, the role of the main human villain in Rampage is set to be filled by actress Malin Akerman. Akerman's character is described as the "calculating" (read: not especially moral) head of the technology company responsible for creating the movie's trio of skyscraper-destroying monsters. Girls and The Office actor Jake Lacy plays the brother of Akerman's character.
Akerman may be best-known among members of the Rampage target audience for her performance as Laurie Jupiter in Zack Snyder's Watchmen. She is also unforgettable as the sultry Liane in the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Currently Akerman can be seen in Showtime's drama Billions. Naomie Harris, P.J. Byrne, Marley Shelton and Jack Quaid are also on-board Rampage for director Brad Peyton, who is working from a script credited to Ryan Engle, Ryan Condal and Carlton Cuse. The movie goes before cameras beginning in April.
Disaster films seem to have become Dwayne Johnson's specialty after the success of San Andreas. In addition to Rampage, Johnson is also set to appear in the Towering Inferno-like Chinese-financed action film Skyscraper. And we mustn't forget that Johnson also has Jumanji coming up in 2017, a movie where he battles regular-sized animals inside the fantasy world of a board game. Somewhere in there, Johnson will have to find some time to sleep.
San Andreas was very much over-the-top in its presentation, and we probably should expect more of the same from Rampage, given the return of director Peyton alongside his pal "The Rock". That means Akerman will likely get a chance to really ham it up as the mutant-creating villain, unless she decides to go the steely route a la Charlize Theron in Fate of the Furious (and other cold blonde villains in action movies).
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Source: THR
