Seth MacFarlane is reportedly developing a reboot of the 1984 comedy Revenge Of The Nerds, and has brought Keith and Kenny Lucas, best known as comedians the Lucas Brothers, on board to star.
The brothers will also co-write the script alongside Alex Rubens (Rick And Morty, Key & Peele), while MacFarlane will produce under his Fuzzy Door banner along with Erica Huggins.
The original 1984 film was directed by Jeff Kanew and starred Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards as two collegiate nerds who team up with their fellow Tri-Lambs to take down the Alpha Betas, a group of jocks. The movie was a hit and spawned a sequel three years later as well as a pair of TV movies.
However, this reboot reportedly won’t be a direct remake. Instead, the film will be a reimagining that examines what it means to be a nerd today. Which makes sense, as what made nerds supposedly uncool back in the 80s – like comic books and video games – is now dominating pop culture.
It also makes sense that the film won’t be a direct remake, as the original film – like a lot of similar 80s comedies – has plenty of problematic elements, mostly involving sex. So maybe the new film can not only examine how the concept of a nerd has evolved, but also how a lot of teenage boy behaviour in 80s comedies that was considered a big laugh looks awful when viewed today.
Interestingly, a Revenge Of The Nerds remake has already been attempted once before. Back in 2006, director Kyle Newman shot two weeks worth of footage before Fox pulled the plug after officials at Emory University in Atlanta objected to some of the raunchy hi-jinx in the script. The film was shelved completely after producers found the movie difficult to shoot on the smaller Agnes Scott campus.
This is another big coup for the Lucas brothers, who also co-wrote the highly-anticipated upcoming drama Judas And The Black Messiah, which stars Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, and they’re also working on a comedy at Universal with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who they previously collaborated with on 22 Jump Street.
It will be interesting to see how this Revenge Of The Nerds reimagining plays out. Not just in how it differs from the original film, but also how it fits into the modern day Hollywood landscape where comedies have mostly been reduced to a straight-to-streaming genre.
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