Seth Gordon to Direct ‘WarGames’ Reboot for MGM

How would a new version of WarGames work in the age of Anonymous and LulzSec? The original film was released in 1983, when hacking was, to most people, almost a sci-fi concept. So when Matthew Broderick played a kid who hacked into a government installation and almost started WWIII through what he thought was an innocent game of chess with a supercomputer, the movie earned a response more due to paranoid fears of political instability and technological dependence than because anyone really thought that a kid would hack the machine brain of the defense department.

But now we’re nearing a time when most people will have felt the effect of malicious hacking, whether through identity theft, phishing scams or the exposure of personal data (or, again, paranoid fear of it) thanks to something like the LulzSec attacks against Sony.

That means that it is a particularly good time to reboot WarGames, and MGM is moving forward with a plan that involves The King of Kong and Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon.

Deadline has the details, saying that Seth Gordon “will be given a wide berth to create a new take” on the original film. That’s all we’ve got right now — no further details, and no word of a separate screenwriter or co-writer. And since it is early in the process, obviously there is no cast to report.

This has nothing to do with either the direct to DVD WarGames: The Dead Code, itself essentially a remake, or the other various sequels/reboots that have been discussed over the years. As far as we know, this is an all-new effort. But will this verion involve terrorism (likely) or some other threat?

And, to those who really won’t like the idea of WarGames being remade, keep in mind that this is MGM. At this point the studio seems determined to exist almost totally on remakes of its proven properties.

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