Time to add one more to the pile of resurrected nostalgia properties. Now it’s 80s nerd comedy Real Genius‘ turn to get the update treatment.
Real Genius was part of that weird 80s trend of movies and TV shows focusing on… let’s say… more intelligent, less athletically inclined characters. It’s aged a bit better than some of its peers, largely because it doesn’t feature any rape scenes (I’m looking at you, Revenge of the Nerds). It starred Val Kilmer as brilliant but lazy physics student Chris Knight and Gabriel Jarrett as Mitch Tyler, an early-placement freshman paired with him on a laser project they don’t realize will be sold to the military by perennial 80s asshole William Atherton. Despite that dark description, it also includes hallway ice skating, a house filling with popcorn and a reclusive genius living in the walls of a dorm. Suffice it to say it’s one of my favorite movies.
According to Deadline, the film is finding new life as a TV show headed up by Workaholics producers Craig DiGregorio and David King for NBC. While one would assume given original’s setting it would essentially wind up being an in-spirit prequel to the popular-but-terrible Big Bang Theory, they plan to update it as a workplace comedy. So I guess more like their also popular-but-terrible Workaholics, but with smart people. It will recast Chris as a “rock star-like genius” with Mitch as his “sheltered, naive co-worker.”
This whole thing sounds less than promising.
