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Walter F. Parkes (born April 15, 1951) is an American producer, screenwriter, and media executive. The producer of more than 50 films, including the Men in Black series and Minority Report , he is the co-founder and co-chairman of Dreamscape Immersive .
Walter F. Parkes was born on April 15, 1951 in Bakersfield, California. He attended Yale University and it was graduated cum laude in 1973. He made its first film project The California Reich (1975), which was made in 1975.
- The Original Idea Wasn’T About Computers Or Hacking.
- Real Early Hackers Served as Models For David Lightman.
- Studios Didn’T Understand it.
- A Real News Report Convinced The Writers That Their Story Was believable.
- It Changed Directors After Just Two Weeks of Shooting.
- The Original Writers Were Fired and Then rehired.
- Barry Corbin’s General Beringer Was Based on Two Real people.
- The Famous Corn on The Cob Scene Was Inspired by A neo-Nazi.
- Matthew Broderick Had to Learn Typing and Get Really Good at Galaga.
- Legendary Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz Contributed One Key Scene.
Before it became a story that blended the rise of hackers and personal computing with the ongoing threats of the Cold War, WarGames was an idea called The Genius. It began when co-writer Lawrence Lasker saw a TV documentary that featured Stephen Hawking. Lasker became fascinated by the idea that Hawking’s work could lead him to essentially solve al...
After they became convinced that the world of computers and hacking would be a great way to get their young genius into the kind of trouble that would drive a movie, Lasker and Parkes began researching the world of hacking and phone phreaks, and ultimately consulted with real-life hackers on the film. These included John “Captain Crunch” Draper, wh...
With their lengthy research and writing period complete, Lasker and Parkes handed their script over to Goldberg, who started shopping WarGamesaround to studios. The reception was initially rather dismissive, as executives weren’t quite sure how plausible the story they were reading actually was. “Nobody seemed to get it," Goldberg said. "They didn’...
Even before studio executives expressed skepticism over the technology present in WarGames, Parkes and Lasker themselves had questions about the plausibility of their own story. According to Lasker, as they were working on the script, Parkes grew discouraged one day and wondered aloud if anyone would buy their story of the entire U.S. military bein...
When Martin Brest was hired to direct WarGames, he immediately began developing a new draft of the script with Lasker and Parkes, but tonal clashes soon ensued. Brest envisioned the film as more of a dark thriller and less of a fun hacker adventure, something that was reflected in both the writing and the footage he delivered to the studio when War...
While Brest was developing his version of WarGames, his vision for the film clashed frequently with Lasker and Parkes’s, who wanted a lighter tone. This led to frequent arguments over story points as the writers crafted a second draft, until one day a phone call ended not with an argument, but with Brest telling Lasker and Parkes to just try things...
General Beringer, the tough talking, good ol’ boy commander of NORAD in the film, is easily the most compelling supporting character in WarGames, whether he’s spouting folksy sayings or chomping on a giant cigar. To craft the character, the filmmakers actually drew on two real people. When Lasker and Parkes were researching the film, they managed t...
Though its plot has international implications and very high stakes, WarGames is often remembered just as fondly by fans for its small character moments, like the “Your wife?” joke in the classroom scene, or Dr. Falken flying a remote-controlled pterodactyl during his introduction. Among those moments, one of the most memorable is the scene in whic...
Though he wasn’t a hacker by any means, the filmmakers thought it was very important for Matthew Broderick to appear as proficient at computer use as someone like David Lightman would appear in real life, even though much of the film ends up focusing on his relationship with Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) and his spoken conversations with the Joshua comput...
By the time Badham was signed on to finish directing WarGames, he was working with the new draft contributed by Parkes and Lasker, but felt the film was still missing one key moment. As Goldberg put it, after David and Jennifer leave Falken’s home in Oregon and head to NORAD, the movie becomes a “rollercoaster,” with very little breathing room left...
Development on WarGames began in 1979, when writers Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker developed an idea for a script called The Genius, about "a dying scientist and the only person in the world who understands him—a rebellious kid who's too smart for his own good".
Walter F. Parkes. Writer: WarGames. Walter F. Parkes was born on April 15, 1951 in Bakersfield, California. He attended Yale University and it was graduated cum laude in 1973. He made its first film project The California Reich (1975), which was made in 1975.
- January 1, 1
- 3 min
- Bakersfield, California, USA
Aug 25, 2002 · Screenwriters Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes later went onto deliver another hi-tech hacker thriller, the highly enjoyable Sneakers (1992). They also wrote and produced Project X (1987), an animal liberation film about chimpanzees being used to conduct nuclear radiation tests.
Project X is a 1987 American science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and starring Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt. The plot revolves around a USAF Airman (Broderick) and a graduate student (Hunt) who are assigned to care for chimpanzees used in a secret Air Force project.
