Don’t roll your eyes….and I’ll refrain from the heavy sighing. In news of yet another soon-to-be rebooted seminal ‘80s classic, word is out that the WarGames re-invention by MGM will be helmed by Seth Gordon.
According to Deadline, director Gordon will be given “a wide birth to create a new take” on the original film; so definitely not just a remake, but a re-imagining. Gordon may be a good choice for this reboot, as he directed the great gaming documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. He also directed Horrible Bosses, which hasn’t been released yet but has some pretty positive buzz and stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman and Colin Farrell.
The original WarGames starred Matthew Broderick in his heyday as a young, cheeky computer-hacking genius. To impress a girl, he decides to hack into the Defense Department and play chess with the main military computer program. But, like all well-intentioned hacking, his cyber meddling ends up almost causing World War 3. Ok, maybe all well-intentioned hacking doesn’t provoke war…but then there really isn’t any “well-intentioned” hacking either.
This fills me with a strange anticipatory dread, much like what I’ve been feeling about the Footloose remake, the Fright Night remake, as well as almost a dozen other remakes or reboots in the workings. I can only hope this one will be an improvement, as technology is a different beast today then it was in the early ‘80s. As long as filmmakers capture the great characters of the original, and the “Learning Machine vs. Man” dynamic, I think it could be a good thing.
As of yet there are no writers or cast attached to this project.