Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is no stranger to performing in crazy action movies, but his next blockbuster sounds like it will be the craziest yet. Johnson is headlining Rampage, the cinematic adaptation of the 1980s arcade video game that saw gigantic monsters wreaking havoc on a city and trying to survive military retaliation. Obviously Rampage is expected to hit the basic beats of its predecessor, but now we have official story details for the movie, which will see Johnson playing Davis Okoye, a heroic primatologist who gets along better with animals than he does with people.
When the Rampage movie begins, Davis Okoye is working closely with a 7-foot-tall, 500-pound albino silverback gorilla named George, who is growing larger and more uncontrollable as the days pass due to being injected an experimental serum. But George isn't the only animal who's been affected by this formula, and towards the end of the movie, Davis has to stop George, a giant wolf named Ralph and a monstrous crocodile named Lizzie from destroying Chicago, though he also wants to save George if possible. George will be played by the nearly seven-feet-tall Jason Liles, and Weta Digital crafted the CGI monstrosities.
Along with providing Rampage's basic plot and the first official photos from the movie, USA Today learned some behind-the-scenes details from Dwayne Johnson about the project's development, like how the actor learned about silverback gorillas at the Atlanta Zoo and Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Johnson also noted that in his second collaboration with director Brad Peyton (the two of them previously working together on San Andreas), it was especially important to kick up the insanity a couple notches. Johnson said:
...You have to ratchet up the dial 10 times with Rampage. These monsters are relentless, and audiences are going to find that ride very exhilarating. As an actor in the movie, it's fun and daunting. It's 12- to 14-hour days of survival, and it's not quiet survival either.
Joining Dwayne Johnson on Rampage are Naomi Harris as scientist ally Dr. Kate Caldwell; Jeffrey Dean Morgan as government agent Harvey Russell; and Malin Akerman as main antagonist Claire Wyden, who Johnson described as "captivating" in the role. The rest of the cast includes Joe Manganiello, Jake Lacy, Marley Shelton and P.J. Byrne. Johnson has a number of other blockbusters on the way, including Skyscraper, the Fast and the Furious spinoff and Black Adam, but it sounds like Rampage will hold a special place in his heart, as he frequently played the arcade game growing up and was fascinated by stories involving gigantic, mutated characters.
Rampage will...well, rampage into theaters on April 20, 2018. As for other blockbusters that will be released next year, take a look at our 2018 premiere guide.
