Sundance Film ‘War Game’ Picked Up By Submarine Deluxe & Decal Releasing; Chilling Jan. 6 Redux Pic Set For August Big Screen Release

EXCLUSIVE: A terrifying near real-life look at America’s possible political future is coming to the big screen this summer – – and I don’t mean the GOP convention in Milwaukee next month.

Depicting another January 6 attack on democracy and the certification of a presidential election in near real time, the Warren Littlefield executive produced War Game has been acquired by Submarine Deluxe and Decal Releasing, I’ve learned.

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict.distributors Submarine Deluxe plan to screen the Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber film on August 2 at NYC’s Film Forum and then take it wider starting on August 9. Decal Releasing will release War Game on VOD in the weeks leading up to the 2024 election, while Boat Rocker will distribute the film overseas.

“We are thrilled to be working with directors Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, along with producers and partners Boat Rocker, Matador Content, Anonymous Content and Vet Voice Foundation on their Sundance docu-thriller War Game,” said Submarine Deluxe co-founder Dan Braun this morning. “Frankly, it’s hard to imagine a more relevant and bone-chilling film; a film that we believe will resonate deeply with audiences.”

The thrill was shared.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Submarine Deluxe and Decal to bring War Game to audiences this fall,” declared past Emmy winners Moss and Gerber Friday. “The film is an invitation to the White House Situation Room to experience a real-time look at a dystopian but entirely plausible political future, and a scary, gripping but also hopeful look at Presidential decision-making in crisis.”

“Hopeful” being the operative word here.

War Game actually has a screening tonight at Washington DC’s DC/DOX. The showing of the film will be followed by a Kara Swisher moderated panel including ex-Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Moss, Gerber, Vet Voice Foundation CEO and Game producer Janessa Goldbeck, former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, Chris Jones, Elizabeth Neumann, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Linda Singh, and Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Vindman.

Having debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year in the Special Screening section, War Game stars, so to speak, former Gov. Bullock as a just reelected semi-fictional POTUS. Bullock’s John Hotham is forced to manage an uprising of rogue military personal and armed insurgents on a semi-fictional January 6, 2025 that makes the real-life January 6, 2021 seem like insolent child’s play. This time the assault on Capitol Hill and state legislatures across the country comes with firepower and a social media onslaught of deepfakes.

All of which leaves incumbent President Hotham and his not always united cabinet and advisors just six hours to quell the revolt encouraged by a defeated extremist rival and see the election results certified. As mentions of invoking the Insurrection Act and other measures are bandied about the staged Situation Room the risk of democracy falling into a well-laid trap by neo-Nazis and high-tech nativists.

With past presidential candidate Bullock joined by the role playing likes of ex-Senators Heitkamp and Doug Jones of Alabama, retired Lt. General Jeffrey Buchanan of the U.S. Army, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark, and Lt. Col. Vindman, the 94-minute unscripted film takes policy wonks, political junkies and others behind the veil to some extent and the very real and all-too human people making the hard decisions.

Based on scenarios and research provided by the Vet Voice Foundation, War Game could just as truthfully be called a Potential Day After Tomorrow depending on how the rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump goes – especially with the latter promising to pardon the January 6, 2021 attackers.

Trump and others on the right refer to the attackers as “hostages” of the federal government for their prison sentences.