Producer Andrew Lazar has been looking to adapt I.Q. 83 by Arthur Herzog for around twenty years, with no screenwriter able to crack the science-fiction novel. Well, Dreamworks may have found their answer in the mad genius Charlie Kaufman. The Adaptation. and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind screenwriter has been hired to do a page one rewrite on the project, which is set to star Steve Carell.
Carell will play Dr. James Healey, who led a group of scientists in DNA experiments and released an airborne virus. The people afflicted by the virus gradually lose I.Q. points, becoming lower and lower forms of themselves. Dr. Healey and the scientists must rush to find a cure, even though they too are being affected by the virus.
In a world where we already have the film Idiocracy, this might seem like familiar territory, even though the novel has been around since 1978. However, I trust in Charlie Kaufman to bring me something I have never seen before. He is pretty adept at doing that sort of thing. Throw Steve Carell performing Kaufman into the mix and I’m already sold.
We’ve not had anything by Kaufman since 2008’s Synecdoche, New York — a film I love and still find baffling — and the world needs more. This one is probably very far away in terms of being done (if it does get done, I’m looking at your Frank or Francis), but I will be counting down the days.
Original report from Deadline.
