The concept stems from an episode of Ira Glass’ “This American Life” on NPR, in which a Harvard student adapted the Drake Equation, which is used to calculate the odds of the existence of alien life. He found it worked for something equally nebulous and scary – love.

Vince DiMeglio and Tim Rasmussen, who have attached together penned the dubious Marmaduke and equally dubious Robin Williams-inflicting License to Wed, will be in charge of working their “magic” on The Girlfriend Equation. That’s not great news.

What is great news, however is that the braintrust of “This American Life,” Ira Glass, will be producing, so here’s to hoping he can provide an irreverent perspective that has eluded the screenwriters in their past projects. Otherwise, there will probably be a CGI alien with a thick Jewish accent and possibly a montage set to Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?”