In a Michael Crichton-related news story that will hopefully feature fewer-than-average instances of the phrase “genital-on-genital touching,” CBS has announced that it’s developing a pilot based on one of the late author’s unused scripts. Executive produced by Sherri Crichton and Laurent Bouzereau though CrichtonSun (the business arm of Crichton’s estate), Genes is being written by CSI producer Rick Eid, from one of Crichton’s many, many scripts about technology gone awry, stacks of which presumably still teeter dangerously in the Jurassic Park and ER creator’s office. (Ironically, none of the scripts are about the perils of a malevolent printing press that kills by crushing victims under the weight of pages full of technophobic screeds.)
In case the title didn’t make it clear, the terrifying tech in question this time is gene therapy, with a brilliant Michael Crichton protagonist saving a young woman’s life with an infusion of his own DNA. (This may or may not be less gross than it sounds.) But oh, wouldn’t you know it: the genes turn out to be evil, transforming the young woman into a dangerous sociopath, in a cautionary tale about doing science anywhere close to a Michael Crichton script. Complicating matters even more, the doctor finds himself falling in love with his psychotic gene recipient, which sounds like either the world’s first case of genetically engineered narcissism, or possibly just an excuse for good old-fashioned genital-on-genital touching. (Whoops!)