More than two years after it was first announced, an interactive program based on a 35-year-old film is taking shape. Eko, a media company known for the branching paths and viewer choices that define its videos, has shared a teaser for WarGames, a digital reimagining of the 1983 movie of the same name.
In the 1983 version of WarGames, a teenage wunderkind portrayed by Matthew Broderick inadvertently wreaks havoc at NORAD after breaking into a supercomputer. Eko’s modern take on that plot will update the original concept by linking it to current events. The project’s trailer refers to recent hacking scandals, such as those that targeted Yahoo and Equifax, while using foreboding images to hint at its own fictional brand of cyberwarfare. Viewers will dictate the direction the story takes by selecting from lists of choices within Eko’s media player.
Eko inked a deal with MGM, which owns the rights to WarGames, back in 2015. At the time, the interactive media company was still known as Interlude, but it has since changed its name. In order to realize its vision of the classic film, Eko enlisted production partner m ss ng p eces and creator Sam Barlow, the designer of the indie video game Her Story. That project, like those produced by Eko, has been hailed for its innovative mix of live-action footage and a plot informed by player choices.
“With #WarGames I was thrilled to take the questions raised by the original movie and ask them again in a world where technology has fundamentally changed our lives. To do that interactively felt like a perfect marriage of form and content,” Barlow said in a press release. “I am excited to introduce viewers to the new hacker protagonist, Kelly, who represents the breadth of modern hacker culture and its humanity. As viewers help steer her story, I hope they will fall in love with her as much as the #WarGames team did!”
The forthcoming WarGames reboot, which is expected to arrive in 2018, can help cement Eko as a producer of premium original content. The company’s latest project, That Moment When, arrived last month.
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