The planned remake of 1984’s "Revenge of the Nerds" has been cancelled by newbie division Fox Atomic — a move especially surprising since the production was two weeks into filming for a summer 2007 release.
The pic, helmed by "Fanboys" director Kyle Newman, had been set to shoot the campus flick at Atlanta’s Emory University when the school backed out earlier this month; production had been on hold while scouts searched for new locations until Fox Atomic decided to pull the plug altogether.
But according to Variety, the film may not have been shaping up as well as the studio had hoped for what would have been the Fox specialty wing’s fifth release aimed at 17-24 year-olds:
"People close to the film say another issue was that Fox Atomic topper Peter Rice was not completely satisfied with the dailies and that the film felt smaller than the kind of pic he’s aiming to release from Atomic, the teen-oriented label launched last year."
The abandonment of the "Nerds" is sad news for the bevy of neophyte castmembers for whom the film might have been as potent a launching pad for stardom as the original had been for such previously unknown stars as Robert Carradine, Timothy Busfield, Anthony Edwards, Booger, and Jefferson D’Arcy from "Married…With Children."
The next-generation nerd cast included Dan Byrd ("The Hills Have Eyes"), Chris Marquette ("Joan of Arcadia"), Jenna Dewan ("Step Up"), Ryan Pinkston ("Punk’d"), Efren Ramirez ("Napoleon Dynamite"), and Kristin Cavallari ("Laguna Beach").
Fox Atomic’s remaining scheduled releases include the vacation nightmare flick "Turistas," the horror remake sequel "The Hills Have Eyes 2" and the zombie sequel "28 Weeks Later."
