Remember the great 1985 comedy REAL GENIUS? if the answer is no, you are either really young or need to broaden your horizons. Starring Val Kilmer, REAL GENIUS ranked in our Top 10 College Movies of All Time thanks to it’s original plot and great nerd-centric plot. Kilmer played the lead role of Chris Knight, a brilliant college student working on a covert CIA project. The film has been a staple for comedy fans for almost three decades and now NBC plans to ruin that by rebooting it as a television series.
According to Deadline, NBC has ordered the series which will be shot as a single-camera sitcom with WORKAHOLICS co-executive producer Craig DiGregorio and PARKS AND RECREATION’s David King calling the shots. There will also be a setting change, moving the college set plot to an office.
Real Genius is a present-day reboot of the 1980s film, set as a workplace comedy. The show centers on the relationship between a rock star-like genius — the character played by Kilmer in the movie — and a sheltered, naive co-worker.
From the sounds of it, NBC is going for the audience currently watching THE BIG BANG THEORY but also want to capitalize on the success of THE OFFICE at the same time. I am not sure how I feel about moving the show out of the campus environment, but it would really depend on the casting. I am calling for it right now that the villain role played brilliantly by William Atherton in the original movie should be now played by Val Kilmer in the series. Come on, who is with me?
