Chris Bishop is doing wonders for the geek image. First he’s adapting the German Night of the Living Dorks, a zombie flick about some geeks who become undead, for an American audience. Now he’s taking that same geek group and posing the question: what if they were blessed with immortality. The result: Jeff the Immortal, which has been picked up by Universal for production.
Variety reports that the concept came to Bishop when he was watching Highlander. The cult film depicts immortals who hunt each other over the course of time. Wondering how Bishop and his friends would act if they had the same benefit of immortality led to the script about ”a slacker who discovers he has supernatural powers but uses these new-found powers for selfish reasons.”
Geeks in supernatural situations has proven popular in recent years, starting with Shaun of the Dead which dropped a real loser in the middle of a zombie invasion. I can’t wait to see what the slacker crowd will do when they find out they can’t die. Something tells me that montage of attempted deaths in Groundhog Day will pale by comparison.
