It’s become almost certain that we’ll never see Charlie Kaufman‘s wildly ambitious meta-Hollywood musical Frank or Francis, but it looks like he will get a chance to collaborate with one of the talents circling that abandoned project for a new film. Steve Carell, who was attached to Frank with Jack Black and Nicolas Cage, has now come aboard to star in a Kaufman-scripted adaptation of the Arthur Herzog novel I.Q. 83.
Set up at Paramount, Deadline reports it’s currently in the early stages with Kaufman just now working on the script before a director comes on board. The story will follow Carell as Dr. James Healey, a scientist who worked with others to conduct DNA experiments, only to have it result in a virus that tears the population. The effect is not one’s demise, but rather the lowering of one’s I.Q. As Carell’s character becomes afflicted, he must find a cure.
This new version won’t be the straight-up science fiction it was originally conceived as but rather a satire in the vein of Stanley Kubrick‘s Dr. Strangelove. Hopefully this comes together as it has the ingredients for something wildly promising, particularly since we’ve been waiting for Kaufman to return to filmmaking. In the meantime, check out a batch of new stills for Bennett Miller‘s Foxcatcher above and below, and one can see our review and more here.
