MGM Reviving ‘WarGames’ as an Experimental Interactive Short Film

There’s been talk of a WarGames remake for some time now — Seth Gordon was attached to direct before he signed on for the forever-developing Uncharted movie, and last we heard Project Almanac director Dean Israelite was attached. For now, it seems like MGM isn’t in a rush to revive the 1983 classic, at least not in the way you might expect. Instead, the studio is bringing WarGames back as an interactive short film / game.

Via Slashfilm, MGM sent out a press release revealing their intentions to revive WarGames, the 1983 film starring Matthew Broderick as a teen hacker who taps into a U.S. military computer system and thinks he’s playing a game. That game turns out to be a nuclear war simulator, and every move the kid makes has the potential to lead us toward — or away from — World War III.

MGM is teaming with Interlude for the new interactive short, which will allow audience members to make narrative decisions and offers a choose your own adventure-style simulation:

The “WarGames” digital short will be a modern take on the original, putting the decisions in the hands of the audience. As an intense story unfolds, the audience has a chance to affect the outcome of the narrative. This new interactive content will leapfrog traditional entertainment by combining the narrative of a compelling movie with the responsiveness of a great game. Interlude’s patented technology makes it possible for creators to tell live-action stories that can adapt in a multitude of directions. Like in a video game, the viewer steps into the story to make choices that affect dialogue and even the plot at any particular moment in time. Every time you watch, and re-watch, the experience can be entirely different. This results in both better viewer engagement with and retention of the digital content.

The WarGames short will feature new characters and plots, though MGM hasn’t made specific details available just yet. It’s unclear if the studio is still pushing forward with their remake of the 1983 film, but if this new experiment proves successful, it might not be long before WarGames returns to the big screen.