WarGames coming back as ‘interactive video experience’

In what is perhaps the most logical reboot ever pitched, classic 1980s movie WarGames is being remade for a new generation as an interactive experience.

According to an exclusive report from Variety, the new WarGames will be "a modern take on the original, melding the interactive elements of a video game with the cinematic experience of a movie."

This means that the film-game hybrid will offer the chance for viewers to become users, as they're given choices that will impact and affect the movie's narrative.

It makes sense for a film like WarGames to be the subject of this new Hollywood experiment, as producer MGM president Roma Khanna told the entertainment outlet. The original film starred Matthew Broderick as a typically precocious teen who finds himself in control of secret military computers and then must play one of the titular games in order to prevent World War 3.

Updating the film with interactive tech "allows us to engage the audience in the fundamental questions of ‘What would you do?'" Khanna said.

The project won't be monetized, and instead will launch as a test to see how viewers receive the blended video game/movie technology.

The article doesn't provide many more details regarding how, exactly, the remade WarGames will offer interactivity, but checking out MGM's developing partner Interlude's portfolio gives a sense of how the media firm incorporates the viewer into its work. Their prior music video and commercial projects typically offer on-screen prompts, which, when selected, change the course of the narrative.

A release date beyond "early 2016" is not provided for the reboot, nor is it clear whether it will be available online, in theaters, or elsewhere.