Making The Rounds

This week's Cinema Stew is a meal fit for anyone who's in training for the fight of his life

Gillard Helming War Games 2

Production Weekly reports that TV director Stuart Gillard (Charmed) has been tapped to helm the sequel to the 1983 Matthew Broderick film WarGames. Randall M. Badat has written the film's script, called WarGames 2: The Dead Game, which is scheduled to begin principal photography mid-November in locations around Montreal.

The storyline follows a teenage hacker whose world gets turned upside after playing an online terrorist-attack simulator game against a government supercomputer designed to profile potential terrorists. All hell breaks loose when the Department of Homeland Security is convinced that he's a terrorist intent on disrupting the fabric of our society.

Even though the WarGames premise has been "updated" for a 21st century audiences, I'm dubious that the sequel will be able to hold its own against the pitch perfect original--Casting will make or break the project...

Theater Shuts Down Rather Than Screen "Drivel"

The two-screen Lorraine Theater in Hoopeston, IL, reopened for business Friday following a two-week protest shutdown by owner Greg Boardman. Boardman said that he closed down the theater rather than run such studio offerings as Jackass Number Two and The Covenant.

"There's just so much lousy material out there -- people vomiting on the screen, " Boardman told the Chicago Tribune. "I have one of the finest sound systems in the world, and I don't want to waste it on such drivel."

Noting that Boardman now operates the theater from his home in California, Carol Hicks, managing editor of the Hoopeston Chronicle remarked, "He's got away from Hoopeston and changed. ... He doesn't know what people like here."

Boardman, who lives in the foothills of the Sierra near Yosemite, told the [paper]: "I can fly back there anytime I want and show any movie I want. ... How man people can say they have their own movie theater and can do that?"

This is no different than the more well known theater chains refusing to show Death of a President. It's a choice.

Have a look at the one-sheet poster for Rocky Balboa, first found on Aint It Cool News:

I may have my doubts about the film...But you gotta love the film's tagline:

It Aint Over 'Till It's Over (snicker-snicker)



That's all for now--the Chicago Bears try to remain undefeated, going up against the Buffalo Bills...Bears QB Rex Grossman had a great game last week. Here's hoping he will do so again today.