Charlie Kaufman isn’t infallible (Human Nature, anyone?), but if your three best screenplays (at least among those that have made it to the big screen) are Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, then attention must be paid. Here’s Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage in Adaptation) attempting to tie all natural history together in one pre-credits sequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmyZq2EfrX0

From Deadline Hollywood:

Charlie Kaufman has been signed to do a page one rewrite of I.Q. 83, an adaptation of Arthur Herzog’s classic 1978 science fiction novel that Paramount is now developing as a star vehicle for Steve Carell. Mad Chance’s Andrew Lazar is producing with Walter Parkes. The plan is for Carell to play Dr. James Healey, who led a group of scientists that conducted DNA experiments that unleashed an airborne virus that ravages the population. The affliction isn’t fatal but pretty bad; it progressively lowers the IQ of the afflicted, more effectively than a marathon of the Kardashians’ reality show. It becomes a race against time as the scientist struggles for a cure, even as he feels himself growing dumber. He watches crowds regressing into animal packs and sees the president of the United States try to comfort the masses, only to babble and drool on television.

Similarities and differences between this project and Mike Judge’s Idiocracy are apparent. (Here’s a recent Mike Judge interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones about the conspiracy to deepsix Idiocracy.) Of course, Idiocracy bore some resemblance to C.M. Kornbluth’s 1951 sci-fi short story The Marching Morons. And I’d hardly be surprised if Kornbluth’s readers two generations ago saw similarities to something that has since been lost in the mists of time.

This reminds me: what percentage of Hollywood projects have a distinct Nature / Nurture angle?