MGM’s system-wide reboot has finally gotten around to a remake of WarGames, the 1983 techno-thriller in which Matthew Broderick nearly launches Armageddon using a dial-up modem and software that is essentially Oregon Trail, but with nuclear weapons. This new version will have director Seth Gordon at the helm, whose previous experience dealing with grown men obsessed with 1980s properties in The King Of Kong has no doubt given him a Gorillas In The Mist-like training in communicating with the current studio environment. Most of Gordon’s work since then has been in the realm of comedy—episodes of Community, Parks And Recreation, and The Office, plus the upcoming Horrible Bosses—which suggests his WarGames may not take itself so seriously, though that’s just speculation at this point. All we do know is that, obviously, computers and hackers have become slightly more sophisticated since 1983, so this remake seems entirely based on giving it a technological upgrade to make it relevant to today’s kids. Like, what if playing a game of FarmVille wiped out our nation’s agricultural system?
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