Charlie Kaufman will rewrite IQ 83 with Steve Carell set to star

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It looks like Charlie Kaufman and Steve Carell have managed a way to work together after all. You may recall Carell was set to star in the musical FRANK OR FRANCIS, but that movie was shelved due to lack of financing. Now Paramount has hired Kaufman to rewrite an adaptation of Arthur Herzog’s science-fiction novel “IQ 83” for Carell to star. He will play Dr. James Healey, who leads a group of scientists that conducted DNA experiments which subsequently unleashed an airborne disease that progressively lowers the IQ of those infected.  

The book is officially described as follows:

You are Dr. James Healey and last week you were a genius. That was before the DNA experiments. Before the accident you said could never happen… Since then you have felt your mind decaying a little more each day. You have watched your wife slip into imbecility. You have seen the crowds growing murderous with animal terror, the President of the United States babbling and drooling on TV… Only one thing separates you from them. You, at least, know what is happening as you search for the cure for the horror you have unleashed upon the world—as each day the dimming of your mind lowers your chance of finding it!

With the man behind such great works like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK taking on the script, it’s hard not to be excited for this one. While the original book was a straight sci-fi story, this adaptation is meant to take on the side of scathing satire in the vein of DR. STRANGELOVE. We don’t know who will direct, but someone out there has to ask Kaufman if he can pull double duty on this one. Please, for me.