EXCLUSIVE: Katee Sackhoff Is a 'Sexy Evil Genius'

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Katee Sackhoff is a Sexy Evil Genius, giving voice to a character created by a writer who can only communicate via computer.
 
Sackhoff, best known for starring as Starbuck on Syfy's Battlestar Galactica, has signed on to the title role in the dark comedy being directed by Shawn Piller, the executive producer of ABC Family’s Greek.
 
The script was written by Scott Lew, a filmmaker afflicted by ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the same malady suffered by Stephen Hawking. Lew is a quadriplegic and wheelchair-bound. He cannot speak and writes using an infrared dot on his forehead, pointing to letters and words on the computer screen.
 
“Writing is the only way I really get to express myself with complexity,” he writes via email to THR.
 
Genius centers on a group of strangers brought together in a downtown Los Angeles bar by their mutual ex-girlfriend (Sackhoff). The woman is mysterious about her intentions, but by the night's end, revenge will be had, romance made and the wronged woman will have delivered on her reputation as the sexy evil genius at the center of all their lives.
 
Before his ALS worsened, Lew wrote and directed Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas, a teen indie that starred Patrick Fugit and Olivia Wilde. Lew says he is fascinated by that impressionable time, which led him to the idea for Genius.  “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.”

Writing Genius wasn’t easy, especially since his condition began to nosedive this year.  
 
“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 notes. “That was a lot faster than now. I lost my speech completely in June of this year.”  
 
Piller/Segan/Shepard, the company behind TV series Dead Zone and Haven, along with Launchpad Productions are behind the movie. The Gersh repped-Sackhoff, who is currently shooting the Gold Circle thriller A Haunting in Georgia, will act as co-producer.