There have been some pretty strange old school video games being optioned for the big screen as of late, from Asteroids to Joust to Space Invaders to Missile Command. Clearly the majority of these projects (assuming they actually get made) would be banking on nostalgia and name recognition more than story or characters. This latest announcement actually has me a little bit intrigued, however, and I daresay it has a lot more potential than those other films. According to Heat Vision, New Line has acquired the rights to the ’80s Midway game Rampage, and they plan to turn it into “a smartly-budgeted monster movie in the vein and tone of Ghostbusters and Independence Day.” Call me crazy, but I might actually watch that movie.

Rampage started life as an arcade game that was released in 1986, but was quickly ported to just about every home console available at the time including the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx and Commodore 64. The object of the game was to control three monsters (a King Kong clone, a Godzilla knockoff, and a giant werewolf) as they destroy various cities. According to the storyline of the game, the monsters were created from humans who were experimented on by a company called Scumlabs. The game was also remade for last-gen consoles under the title Rampage: Total Destruction.

The movie is being set up by John Rickard, who co-produced such movies as Final Destination, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Horrible Bosses. No director has been named as of yet, and he is currently meeting with various writers. Depending on the timing, this movie could end up competing with Legendary’s new Godzilla reboot, which is being directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters). What do you think, would you be interested in watching a Rampage movie (one that isn’t directed by Uwe Boll, that is)?