WARGAMES Reboot Hires New Director and Writer

Reboot finds new blood…

According to reports, director Dean Israelite (‘Project Almanac’) is in finals negotiations to direct MGM’s reboot of ‘WarGames,’ with ‘Grace Of Monaco’ scribe Arash Amel in talks to provide the script.

Starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, the John Badham-directed 1983 original followed a computer prodigy who hacks his way into a military computer program. Thinking he is playing a game with the computer, he innocently starts the countdown to World War III.

The remake was originally set up with Seth Gordon (‘Horrible Bosses,’ ‘King of Kong’) directing from a draft of the script by Noah Oppenheim, but Gordon stepped away from the reboot after landing the director’s chair for Sony Picture’s ‘Uncharted’ movie.

Jeff Sneider over at TheWrap hears that the likes of Ansel Elgort (‘The Fault in Our Stars,’ ‘Divergent’) and Tye Sheridan (‘Dark Places,’ ‘Joe’) are on the shortlist for the male lead.