WarGames Sequel Now Filming

iluvcapra writes "This news is a little late, but on November 20th WarGames 2: The Dead Code began filming in Montreal. (I only became aware of the new production when I read that MGM is suing the rightful owner of WarGames.com for his domain name.) The film will be produced and distributed by MGM — distributor of the original WarGames — and directed by Stewart Gillard, director of such gems as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3. Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, the team behind the original film, are not involved. The plot revolves around a hacker breaking into a terrorism-simulation computer."

Cast?

[pluther]

No Matthew Broderick? It's gonna suck.

You'd think they'd be more concerned with...

[jbarr]

...WarGames2.com [slashdot.org] which is really more relevant to the movie...and already registered and re-directed to another site. At least content of WarGames.com appears to have some relevance to its name.

Re:My Rights Online??!!

[Space cowboy]

That'll be the whole "MGM suing the rightful owner of the domain wargames.com" bit, that you seemed to miss in the *summary* (let alone the *story*)....

Simon

Not quite, but close

[localroger]

Actually, in the opening scene of Wargames a psychological experiment reveals that many silo crews would not launch their ICBM's, there not being much point to pounding the rubble when the world is ending anyway. In order to plug this leak in our defense control of the missiles is handed directly to the WOPR supercomputer which already has the most trusted advisory role in case of an attack. And it's WOPR that Broderick hacks. And it's WOPR that doesn't realize the "game" is real, its missile control outputs having been directed to the control of real missiles. And the humans, having been removed from the decision loop, aren't in a position to stop it.

Re:Augh!

[Dun Malg]

> (acoustic modem wardialing, anyone?)

Not sure how that was a huge technical problem, particularly as name for that technique is derived from the name of the film which popularized it :)

It's named after the method explained in the dialogue, not the particular visual portrayal used, which was clearly chosen by the director so as to let the lay viewer know he's "hooking the phone to the computer". The glaring technical problem is that you can't auto dial with an acoustic coupler because the computer obviously has no mechanism for pressing down the hookswitch on the damn phone to hang up between calls.

Re:Broken Premise?

[mo]

It's also true that in real life there were a number of "near misses" where technical failures and other issues were initially interpreted as an incoming strike and disaster only narrowly averted.

The story of Stanislav Petrov [wikipedia.org] is a good account of one such instance.

Stupid Decision to Follow?

[multisync]

One of the other arbitration cases MGM's attorney was involved in was Dell Inc. v. Innervision Web Solutions over the domain name dellcomputersucks.com. From the National Arbitration Forum's finding: [adrforum.com]

9. Respondents domain name, dellcomputerssuck.com is confusingly similar to Complainant's mark, DELL.

yeah, that one got me too. I was sure Dell had registered a domain to inform me of the suckiness of their products.

10. Respondent has no rights to or legitimate interests in respect to the domain name dellcomputerssuck.com.

... because criticizing the quality of Dell computers is the exclusive prerogative of Dell Inc.

11. Respondent registered and used the domain name in bad faith.

This may have some merit. According to the Decision, the domain originally pointed to the respondent's site, on which he sold computers. After receiving the C&D, he pointed it to a site featuring commentary critical of Dell.

It really shouldn't matter though, as there is no way a reasonable person could confuse a site called dellcomputersucks.com with Dell's own website, thus violating their trademark. Unfortunately, Carolyn M. Johnson, Peter L. Michaelson, and Tyrus R. Atkinson, Jr. didn't see it that way:

12. The dellcomputerssuck.com domain name should be transferred to Complainant.

Re:Augh!

[sootman]

> While there were huge *glaring* technical problems with the film...

On that note, one of the things they did RIGHT was they wrote a special program so that every time Matthew Broderick hit a key on the keyboard, one letter showed up on the screen. (That is, he could press any key, and the correct letter appeared.) I hate that in 99% of movies, the sounds of the keys being pressed has no relation in time, speed, or quantity to what is appearing on the screen. God damn, it was a solved problem TWO FREAKING DECADES AGO!

That said, the studio loaned him a Galaga machine to practice on while shooting--that's really him playing in the scenes that show him playing. He was sad to see it go at the end of filming. :-)

Source: Dynamite Magazine [wikipedia.org] (anyone else remember that?) I think, in an article published way back then.

Re:This isn't a film for geeks.

[It'sYerMam]

The Matrix films don't involve much real philosophy beyond the brain in a vat thought experiment. After that, it's not really philosophy, merely, "deep." i.e. it sounds nice, but means nothing.

Re:This isn't a film for geeks.

[rudeboy1]

Seems it's not directly listed as Hackers 2, (it is AKA, if you read down) but simply as Takedown [imdb.com]. The story of Kevin Mitnick. There is a reason you have not heard of this movie.

Re:Brilliant

[Anonymous Coward]

ritalin

Trademark Law

[SonicSpike]

It's all about US trademark law.

Essentially the judge will look at the case in the light of 'causing confusion in the marketplace'. In other words, the entire goal of trademarks is to PREVENT confusion in the free market. If the judge finds the current domain name to be causing confusion, then he could potentially rule that it is to be surrendered to MGM. Who knows how it will go? That's why it pays to have a good attorney that can make a convincing case before a judge.

Re:This isn't a film for geeks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, Halle Barry's breasts weren't in all of them. Several could have used the boost. I know it certainly helped Swordfish.

Yes, but Hackers has Angelina Jolie's breasts!

Re:This isn't a film for geeks.

[Sqwubbsy]

After that, it's not really philosophy, merely, "deep." i.e. it sounds nice, but means nothing.

i.e. Existentialism.

Re:This isn't a film for geeks.

[internewt]

The new disscussion system [slashdot.org] doesn't have the discussions split across multiple pages, and appears to thread fully. You toggle the view of comments on and off purely by the power of your browser, and /. scores!

You're right about forums with threading. The best threading I've seen is usenet, when combined with a good client (I did strangly like Netscape 4's usenet client!). Email can thread too, with client support, though usenet is built for threaded discussions. I wonder if there is a web based forum software package that runs on a usenet backend (apart from Google groups)? I wonder if the web interface auto bottom-posts?

Re:Brilliant

[Miseph]

Good choice. It's the gaming equivalent of an H2SO4 enema.