Charlie Kaufman Pens "IQ 83" Screenplay

Charlie Kaufman will rewrite the script of the long in development film adaptation of author Arthur Herzog's classic 1978 science fiction novel "IQ 83" at Paramount says Deadline.

The project is being developed as a star vehicle for Steve Carell who would play Dr. James Healey, the leader of a group of scientists that conducted DNA experiments that unleashed an airborne virus that ravages the populous.The affliction progressively lowers the Iq of the afflicted, and a race against time begins as scientists struggle for a cure, even as they rapidly grow dumber.

Written as serious science fiction, the film adaptation instead will unspool as a "Dr. Strangelove"-style satire.

A director will not be set until Kaufman's done with the script.
 
Andrew Lazar and Walter Parkes are producing the film.

Kaufman is the latest to attempt to crack the script after the project has been in development for almost two decades.