Back in the 1980s and 90s, people were pretty scared of personal computers. Unsure about the limitations of the technology, people let their imaginations get the best of them and Hollywood was more than happy to exploit those fears. Throw in a bit of Cold War paranoia and you have WarGames, the thriller starring a young Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. There was talk a couple years ago about Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way shingle remaking the film, but we haven't heard a peep about it since. Then this happened:
Deadline reports that director Seth Gordon, the man behind the documentary King of Kong and the upcoming comedy Horrible Bosses, has been hired to bring WarGames into the 21st century for MGM. In the John Badham film a pair of young adults find their way in through the backdoor of a central military computer. Originally believing that they are merely playing a game, they suddenly discover that what they've been doing is real and they are close to starting World War III by firing nuclear weapons at the Russians. Since recovering from bankruptcy MGM has largely been focusing on re-adapting it's older titles, including Robocop and Carrie.
While I don't really see WarGames as one of those movies too precious to get remade, I really don't understand how they are going to pull this off with modern day technology. Any military computer today would require a ridiculous amount of skill to infiltrate, and unless the hacker is a complete fucking idiot they would have to know exactly what they are doing and wouldn't be confused and think that it's a game. I wonder if they'll have to change it to the point that it won't even resemble WarGames anymore. One can only wonder what Seth Gordon has up his sleeve.
