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EXCLUSIVE: MGM will reboot the 1983 thriller War Games, and the studio has set Seth Gordon to develop the film to direct. Gordon, who made his breakthrough with the gaming documentary The King of Kong, most recently directed the New Line comedy Horrible Bosses, with Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Jamie Foxx. The reconstituted MGM has been going to town with remakes — landing Jose Padilha to direct Robocop and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to script Carrie – but the John Badham-directed War Games is one that seems particularly reboot-able.
The original starred Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy as computer prodigies who finds a back door into a military computer program. They think they are playing games with the computer only to find they could trigger WWIII if the computer launches nuclear missiles at the Russians. In terms of computer games, kids were playing Pong back then; the level of sophistication with vidgames and the Internet in the digital age opens a wealth of possibilities, and Gordon will be given a wide berth to create a new take on the tale. The deal also reunites him with MGM toppers Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jon Glickman, who were at Spyglass when Gordon directed Four Christmases there. Gordon’s repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
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this rocks. i just watched the old movie – a little clunky but a GREAT central idea. making a modern version could be great if they don’t f+ck it up. can matt b play a dad?
They are monetizing their IP. The projects are brands remake something people are already familiar with. But hey I rather see somehting new.
CLUNKY???? Pretty sure fire entertainment, if memory serves… and just because it was tension built of drama and good writing, not 2-second cuts and CGI, doesn’t mean it was “clunky,” just better…
Why? Why oh why oh why do we need a new War Games?
Remake Eagle Eye instead
Apparently, no one recalls the cheap sequel MGM spun off before its last round of financial difficulties — when the home entertainment division was blowing $$$ on stupid shit like sequels to “War Games.”
What is the sequel you speak of?
This is one of those awful sequels. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/
Still waiting for the release of RED DAWN
Looks like people in hollywood who had an original idea for a movie have all either died or left in a hurry. In stead its now the dawn of remakes and reimaginings – as long as the studiobosses gets their big fat check
How right you are. Look at cable – they find a book by a small press in NJ called Boardwalk Empire and make a hit show. They find a less known Elmore Leonard work and make Justified. A clever series by Charlaine Harris and you have True Blood.
I can look across the room at my bookshelf right now and see at least 50 fiction and nonfiction books that would make great viewing – and instead they are remaking Footloose, Wargames, etc, etc, etc. Looks like the mailroom boys of the 80s finally got some decision making power and what do they do? They get all nostalgic for the popcorn movies of their youth.
May this go into production hell like every other MGM property they have made out of desperation.
Was that indie just a jumpstart for him?
If this has to be done, Gordon’s an interesting choice.
Or maybe try making something original. Greed triumphs over art.
It is now official, Hollywood has absolutely no new ideas, and then they wonder why the number of people going to the movies is sliding. And the movie networks on cable are moving more and more to original programing. The first movie was garbage. The second one will be garbage. Is Hollywoood going to pay me to sit throught it?
When’s the Gremlins remake gonna happen? I love remakes or as they call them on broadway revivals. want original movies go to the laemle. Want art? Go to a museum. Want your movie to get made, stop whining and raise the money. It’s a business not philanthropy. carry on.
Enough w/ the remakes already!!
AMEN!!!
But there’s already a War Games sequel. It’s called Terminator. Wasn’t Skynet just WOPR 2.0?
Actually, there really was a wargames sequel, called “wargames – the dead code” and it was positively atrocious. This can go nowhere but wrong….
‘The controls to the world’s nuclear arsenal have been hidden inside a classic arcade console, and Steve Weibe races Billy Mitchell to be the first to get to the “kill screen” (yes, that’s what it’s called) and save the world from annihilation. ‘
Oh, my!
They already remade War Games. It’s called Die Hard 4.
This is a bad idea. Don’t remake War Games,instead do a new story. I know that is a scarey prospect but it can be done.
They already made War Games its called Superman III.
Kids were playing PONG when WAR GAMES came out in 1983? In 1976, yes, but in 1983, not so much. I heard of PONG but it was a decade before us, we played DONKEY KONG and POLE POSITION.
Not to mention Asteroids, Space Invaders, Defender and even Tron. I was a senior in High School and that was the heyday of video game parlors in malls or even stand-alone stores.
I hate to say this. but I was playing pong. Atari. The FIRST video game.
Remakes have been part of the Hollywood machinery from the get-go. The Wizard of Oz, Scarface, The Maltese Falcon, A Star is Born. When it works, you get Ocean’s 11. If not, you get The Omen. But if a story can be updated or the technology has changed, what’s the big deal?
It’s not a REBOOT — call it what it is. A REMAKE.
God, enough of “reboot” already, as if it’s some high-minded “reconceptualization” or whatever spin terms the PR dept. wants to throw on there now.
Actually they really did remake War Games. Its called War Games: The dead code. It was awful. The brand is dead… pull your heads out of your asses.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/
Oh, my God, stop! STOP with the remaking and the cloning and the sequeling. (Is that a word?)
First off, you can’t “reboot” a single film. That’s called a remake. Secondly, when “War Games” came out in 1983, video games had progressed a little beyond Pong (which was released to the home market in 1975). By 1983, Dragon’s Lair was in arcades, which was the first laser disc game that featured real animation.
And only Broderick was the computer prodigy; Sheedy was just a cute girl who for no apparent reason was into his nerd character…
It wasn’t a single film.
There was a piss-poor sequel in 2008 that NO ONE saw.
It’s official: the 80s were the pinnacle of American cinema. How else to explain the rampant desire to replicate the creative blossoming of the Reagan era? Oh God, please let this be a period piece. Colin Farrell in the Dabney Coleman role? Kristen Stewart succeeding Ally Sheedy? YUMMmuck.
I gotta disagree that WARGAMES is particularly remake-able though. The central conceit is entirely wrapped up in the era (modems, Russians, total nuclear war) and stray too far from that and its just another hacker movie. How about writing a similar but original story (trenchcoat mafia hacks into Predator drone controls, start killing dudez) and grow some balls and maybe a marketing department.
There’s way more product that is more easily and interestingly adapted. FOOTLOOSE remake, makes sense. ARTHUR remake also. Honestly surprised no one’s tried a new 9 TO 5 or CANNONBALL RUN.
Was this a rhetorical question, sir? “How else to explain the rampant desire to replicate the creative blossoming of the Reagan era?”
I’ll explain: everybody who came of age in the 80s is now in charge, or at least in positions of being able to bend ears, and what better way to keep their (silly) development jobs than to feed into their bosses’ fear of the unknown by focusing on branded titles. Plus, they receive a vicarious little thrill out of visiting nostalgia.
Rhetorical question? Yes and no. I agree virtually 100% with your premise (slightly re-ordered – i.e., everyone now in charge came of age in the 80s) except that the appetite for 80s remakes does SEEM stronger than that for similar earlier waves.
In the 90s, 70s remakes were peaking.
In the 80s, the 60s were a very popular period, and
in the 70s, the 50s were a very popular period, but
not remakes, just setting.
Probably a combination of 80s kid ascendancy and 2000s corporate risk aversion.