Movies
New Line Pounds Walls, Pulls Out ‘Rampage’ Writer
Ryan Engle has been tapped to pen New Line’s big-screen adaptation of 1980s video game Rampage, reports THR.
The concept of the game revolves around a trio of mild-mannered humans who are mutated into a giant lizard, a werewolf and a gorilla – Godzilla, Wolf Man and King Kong, respectively – and fight the military while destroying buildings. Players controlled the monsters and moved up levels when a city was destroyed.
John Rickard (Final Destination 5, Horrible Bosses) is producing. Rampage is a priority for New Line, which is hoping to make an Independence Day-style picture on a smart budget.
Engle is a relative newcomer to the screenwriting trade — until last year, he was an exec at Kopelson Entertainment and began moonlighting writing scripts. He worked with Louis Leterrier on a rewrite of A Killing on Carnival Row, says the site, but it was his thriller On a Clear Day that won him attention. The script made it onto the Black List and is now being developed as a directing vehicle for Jaume Collet-Sera (House of Wax, Unknown).
Two-time BAFTA winning filmmaker Joe Wright (Hanna, “Black Mirror“) is set to direct the feature adaptation of post-apocalyptic thriller novel, Juice, Deadline reports today.
Emmy winner Abi Morgan (Shame, “Eric”) will adapt Tim Winton‘s novel for Working Title Films.
In Juice, “A young husband and father is recruited into a top-secret resistance organization, to join the ranks of militia men tasked with targeting the isolated and wealthy culprits responsible for this global catastrophe. When a mission goes wrong, he finds himself on the run, having to fight to the end to survive in this hostile world.”
It’s set in a world ravaged by climate-change disaster.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled that Tim Winton has entrusted us with his extraordinary epic,” Wright told Deadline. “The story is both a thrilling modern family saga and an urgent call to action. I cannot wait for audiences to experience it on the big screen.”
Winton added, “I’m pleased to know a filmmaker of Joe Wright’s calibre has chosen to adapt Juice for the screen. His capacity to portray the turmoil and the turning points of nations and peoples as well as private individuals distinguishes his work as a director and I’m confident that Juice is in good hands.”
Juice was initially published in October 2024 and longlisted for The Climate Fiction Prize 2026.
You must be logged in to post a comment.