Last month, in the wake of the box office success of the disaster film San Andreas, we learned that Dwayne Johnson had become attached to star in New Line’s adaptation of the video game Rampage. At that point the studio was targeting a 2016 production start date, but it all depended on how quickly they could find a director. Well that case has now been settled, as Deadline reports that Johnson’s San Andreas and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island director Brad Peyton is in talks to helm and produce the monster-filled Rampage.

The original game involved a number of monsters terrorizing major cities all over North America, as the player controlled a specific creature with the aim of punching as many buildings as possible. The Rampage movie will presumably have a human element (duh), and that’s where Dwayne Johnson comes in. Peyton proved with San Andreas that he can handle major destruction set pieces and he has a solid relationship with Johnson, so he seems like a fine fit for this particular project.

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Image via Warner Bros.

Rampage will start filming next summer, after Johnson wraps Fast & Furious 8 and the second season of his HBO series Ballers. The aim is to have this thing in theaters by 2017, with New Line no doubt wanting to take advantage of the ginormous success of Jurassic World. Monsters: they’re so hot right now.


Johnson is currently filming the action comedy Central Intelligence alongside Kevin Hart, also for New Line. He and Peyton had been poised to reteam on Journey 3 and 4, but it sounds like Rampage has become the priority at the moment.