‘Rampage’ Director Brad Peyton Explains How You Adapt A Video Game With No Plot
Adapting a video game with no story must be simultaneously freeing and terrifying, a chance to use a few basic building blocks to tell the story you want to tell while also having no established foundation to build upon. Maybe that’s whyit has taken five yearsfor a movie based on the 1986 arcade semi-classicRampageto come together – giant monsters destroying cities is an inherently cinematic concept, but there is literally no story present here beyond “giant beasts punch skyscrapers into dust.”
But Rampage is happening now and theever-busyDwayne Johnsonis set to star, reunitingwith hisSan AndreasdirectorBrad Peyton. While production on the video game adaptation isn’t set to begin until next year, Peyton is already answering questions about film. Specifically, how is this going to be a film at all?
We Got This Coveredsat down with Peyton to talk about his new release, the demonic possession movieIncarnate, but he also spoke about what it’s like to tackle an adaptation where the story has to be invented from the ground up:
He also confirms that the film will feature the classic trio of monsters from the original game – a giant wolf, a giant gorilla, and a giant lizard.
I actually appreciate Peyton’s candor here, especially since the realm of video game adaptations is filled with the corpses of movies that sounded good on paper but were completely lost in the leap to a new medium.Rampageis not sacred territory – it’s a silly, barebones concept that has the potential to be expanded into something a little (or a lot) more interesting. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Peyton’sSan Andreas, he does have a knack for staging impressive chaos and destruction. Maybe a few giant monsters are the missing ingredient.
