Carell and Kaufman team for viral outbreak movie…
An adaptation of award-winning novelist Arthur Herzog’s classic 1978 science fiction novel ‘I.Q. 83’ is in the works over at Paramount with Steve Carell attached to star and Charlie Kaufman providing the script, says Deadline.
Published in 2003, the novel tells of a virus outbreak that causes society’s IQ levels to drop significantly. Carell would play Dr. James Healey, who led a group of scientists conducting DNA experiments that resulted in the airborne virus. It becomes a race against time as the Carell’s scientist struggles for a cure, even as he feels his mind decaying a little more each day. Think of it as a prequel to Mike Judge’s satirical comedy ‘Idiocracy.’
Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar is producing with Walter Parkes. Hollywood has been trying to bring Herzog’s novel to the big screen for a number of years now but the project never made it out of the development stage.