She might still be best known for playing the reinvented version of a sci-fi TV hero (that would be Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, in case you were wondering) but since leaving the series, Katee Sackhoff has been embracing her darker side, particularly on 24. Now she’s taking that to the next level, signing on to play a scheming, vengeful woman in Sexy Evil Genius.
Scott Lew has written the script, which follows a group of strangers drawn to a Los Angeles bar by their mutual ex-girlfriend (Sackhoff). Initially, she keeps her motivations mysterious, but is soon playing mind games and wreaking revenge on some of her former flames.
According to the writer, he got the idea after writing Bickford Shmeckler’s Cool Ideas, which featured Patrick Fugit as a young man who has to deal with the theft of his diary, the place where all his theories are scribbled. “I thought, 'why not do a story about early 30-somethings, where a sexy girl forces an unhappy guy to remember all his dreams and aspirations when they were 17 and dating,'” Lew tells the Heat Vision blog.
His achievement this time out is made more impressive by the fact that he suffers from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the condition brought to wide attention by Stephen Hawking. And Lew is starting to worsen. “When I started the script, which was just over a year ago, I could still mumble a bit, so I dictated what I could and used my head to point out words that I couldn't pronounce,” he says. “That was a lot faster than now. I lost my speech completely in June of this year.”
Shawn Piller, who himself has an extensive sci-fi background, but it best known these days for being in charge of US telly comedy drama Greek, will step behind the camera for the indie film.