Horrible Bosses Director Seth Gordon to Remake War Games
Posted 06.24.11 by Ryan
Do you want to play a game?
With MGM now out of the mountain of debt they were buried under, the studio is digging into their archives for one of their next projects with 1983's War Games. The movie starred Matthew Broderick as a high school student who uses his acoustic coupler modem to inadvertently break into a military supercomputer and, thinking he's playing a computer game, almost starts World War III.
Deadline reports MGM has hired director Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) to help develop the War Games remake into a more modern context. Gordon is not unfamiliar with gaming, having directed the 2007 documentary The King of Kong, which followed a battle between two men attempting to claim the highest score in the arcade console version of "Donkey Kong". In an interview with Collider, Gordon expressed his excitement about the project.
I love the original. I’m a bit of a hacker fanatic, and know a fair bit about that industry and cyber crime and cyber warfare. I have a real point-of-view on the material and how things have changed. And also, I think the politics of the world have changed in really fascinating ways since 1983. There’s no longer a monolithic evil empire somewhere, spreading a different philosophy of life. That doesn’t exist. It’s a much more complicated, nuanced, political world we’re in, and I think that actually makes for a more interesting plot to tell. Frankly, cyber attack is a lot more real.
Gordon admits that it won't be easy to win over fans of the original movie.
I prepared myself mentally already for those who love the original so much that they’ll never like what we do, no matter what it is. That’s just a given. And then, beyond that, I just think it’s about trusting our instincts and making the best film we possibly can. I don’t find that daunting. I find it a cool challenge, honestly.
War Games may not be Gordon's next project. "It will take a long time ‘cause we have to write it and then cast it," said Gordon. "I’m hoping to get that going, and also sneak a smaller film, in between."
While we understand if some are turned off by the idea of a War Games remake, fear not. It can't be worse than the straight–to–DVD, 2008 sequel, WarGames: The Dead Code.