Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage films Atlanta as Chicago

Dwayne Johnson’s action movie Rampage built Chicago in Atlanta for scenes showing the city being attacked by giant monsters.

By Nick Goundry 13 Apr 2018

Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage films Atlanta as Chicago
Rampage

Dwayne Johnson’s action movie Rampage built parts of downtown Chicago in production hub Atlanta, Georgia, for scenes showing the city being attacked by giant monsters.

Rampage is directed by Brad Peyton and is inspired by a popular mid-1980s arcade game of the same name.

The story follows Johnson as a primatologist who faces a race against time to stop the immense genetic mutants from decimating the US.

One of the film’s key sequences involves the monsters attacking Chicago's Federal Plaza. The city was partially rebuilt as giant sets on the back lot of Third Rail Studios in Atlanta, using extensive reference photography taken of the real Chicago.

Third Rail lies less than 10 miles from central Atlanta and offers two large sound stages and a 30-acre back lot.

Colin Strause of Hydraulx VFX worked closely with director of photography Jaron Presant and production designer Barry Chusid.

“It’s an entire city block, plus side streets and our back lot was large enough so we could lay it out to scale,” says Strause of the part of downtown Chicago that was built for the Rampage shoot.

“We took the pre-viz (previsualised shots) and figured out where the humans would be – not the creature shots because they were all digital – and mapped everyone’s path from an overhead view.

“The art department then broke it into regions, or islands, that we could rotate and we worked with Barry to spread them out so Jaron could get the lighting and gear around them. They looked like completely disconnected pieces, but they were all parts of the puzzle.”

While much of Chicago’s plaza was physically built, background extensions were added digitally.

For more on filming in Georgia and for local contacts see our production guide.


A virtual camera system called N-Cam enabled the team to ‘see’ the digital landscape extensions in real-time as they filmed in order to help them figure out the most dynamic shot selections and see how the physical and visual effects elements would best interact.

Georgia is one of America’s top production hubs, with world-class studios and generous filming incentive support.

Pinewood Atlanta Studios is one of the state’s principal facilities and has been a long-term home to Marvel in recent years as a base of operations for Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Spider-Man: Homecoming to name just three.

Image: Warner Bros

The story follows Johnson as a primatologist who faces a race against time to stop the immense genetic mutants from decimating the US.

One of the film’s key sequences involves the monsters attacking Chicago's Federal Plaza. The city was partially rebuilt as giant sets on the back lot of Third Rail Studios in Atlanta, using extensive reference photography taken of the real Chicago.

Third Rail lies less than 10 miles from central Atlanta and offers two large sound stages and a 30-acre back lot.

Colin Strause of Hydraulx VFX worked closely with director of photography Jaron Presant and production designer Barry Chusid.

“It’s an entire city block, plus side streets and our back lot was large enough so we could lay it out to scale,” says Strause of the part of downtown Chicago that was built for the Rampage shoot.

“We took the pre-viz (previsualised shots) and figured out where the humans would be – not the creature shots because they were all digital – and mapped everyone’s path from an overhead view.

“The art department then broke it into regions, or islands, that we could rotate and we worked with Barry to spread them out so Jaron could get the lighting and gear around them. They looked like completely disconnected pieces, but they were all parts of the puzzle.”

While much of Chicago’s plaza was physically built, background extensions were added digitally.

For more on filming in Georgia and for local contacts see our production guide.


A virtual camera system called N-Cam enabled the team to ‘see’ the digital landscape extensions in real-time as they filmed in order to help them figure out the most dynamic shot selections and see how the physical and visual effects elements would best interact.

Georgia is one of America’s top production hubs, with world-class studios and generous filming incentive support.

Pinewood Atlanta Studios is one of the state’s principal facilities and has been a long-term home to Marvel in recent years as a base of operations for Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Spider-Man: Homecoming to name just three.

Image: Warner Bros

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