Shia LaBeouf will soon be one of the smart people. He’s set to star in a new sci fi movie for Neil Burger in which he takes “the ultimate smart pill”. “Flowers for Algernon” anyone? Variety says the movie is based on a novel by Alan Glynn called “The Dark Fields”, and for the movie they’ll drop “the” and simply call it Dark Fields.

Though the idea of someone suddenly becoming smart smells a little bit of Algernon, Glynn’s book is evidently less introspective and more of a techno-thriller. That usually means lots of car chases and running and not so much thinking. Also, Shia’s pre-pill character isn’t sort of a retard. Instead, it’s about a guy taking pills to become a genius, and then refusing to stop even when there are disturbing side effects. Here’s hoping one of those side effects is gigantism. Growing is fun.