The controversy over intelligent design is a subject that tends to either bore people to tears, or send them immediately into an indignant fury, depending on their political interest and leanings. It comes, then, as a welcome surprise that Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus is so utterly engaging. Directed by marine biologist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson, the film takes a casual, humorous approach to the controversy that draws the audience in while never failing to respect its subject.

Olson himself plays a central role in the film, and his winning, gregarious personality is a key to its success, as he interviews majors players on both sides of the intelligent design controversy (as well as his own incredibly vivacious mother, Muffy “Moose” Olson). Despite his science background (he has a degree in evolutionary biology), Olson is as open with intelligent design advocates as he is those on the other side of the issue, and the ease he finds in relating to the former is presented as both troubling and amusing. In Flock of Dodos, supporters of intelligent design come across as straight-forward, friendly people. Evolutionists, on the other hand, tend towards arrogance and intellectual elitism, making it difficult for even one of their own to relate to them. When Olson gathers a group of scientists with whom he played poker in graduate school for another game, they are full of bluster, and obsessed with being “right,” instead of trying to understand their opposition.

Paramount sure is political these days. In addition to Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, they're also about to start work on Stop-Loss, in which a soldier is forced to serve a second tour in Iraq, and are also producing Ridley Scott's The Invisible World, about the kidnapping of a female journalist in Iraq, which is due to go into production early next year. And now they've added intelligent design to the list.

According to Variety, the studio just hired Ronald Harwood to write a screenplay based on last year's court decision ruling that a Pennsylvania school board didn't have the right to force teachers to teach intelligent design. (Interestingly, the film's producer was thinking "movie" from the very start, so much so that she actually sent someone to watch and take notes on the trial -- does that show clever foresight or a disturbing tendency to turn every major news story into tomorrow's blockbuster? Both?) In Harwood's eyes, his benchmark is Inherit the Wind, the play and film that told the story of the famous Scopes trial, which allowed evolution into (Tennessee) classrooms in the first place. "Our aspiration is to make a film that powerful ... We have a highly emotional case that divided a town right down the middle, and a judge whose summary was spectacular."

Harwood is currently doing a rewrite on Baz Luhrmann's mysterious Outback Romance, but as soon as he finishes that, it's all intelligent design, all the time.