Shall we play a game? According to TheWrap, up-and-coming director Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) is in final negotiations with MGM to direct a remake of the 1983 Cold War science fiction film WarGames. Erased screenwriter Arash Amel will pen the script, based on original drafts from Noah Oppenheim (The Maze Runner) and Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk).
Israelite actually became the director frontrunner back in March, after Seth Gordon dropped out to focus on the Uncharted film for Sony. The Fault In Our Stars‘ Ansel Elgort and Mud star Tye Sheridan are reportedly on the studio’s shortlist for the lead role, which was played by Matthew Broderick in the original film.
Predictably, it looks like MGM is going for a contemporary take on the original story. Broderick played a young man who found a back door into a military central computer and confused it with a video game, which almost led to the start of World War III. In the remake, the character will be a teenage hacker who “unwittingly sets off a virus bent on destroying the world’s computer systems.”
More news as it comes in.
