Duh . . .

The latest trend spotted by Outtakes: Movies about “dumb people.” The common denominator of a handful of upcoming productions is the manner in which seemingly uneducated, unintelligent people succeed through basic instinct.

To wit:

* “Dummies”: Frank Capello’s screenplay centers on two illiterate backwoodsmen who stumble on swamp water that, when drunk, turns them into geniuses. The hitch: Every time they have a chance to capitalize on their smarts . . . they run out of water. David Permut and David Rotman produce at Columbia. (Permut has another flick about upwardly mobile hicks--based on TV’s classic “Beverly Hillbillies”--in development at Warners.)

* “The Vulgarians”: A script by Robert Collector and Dana Olsen about natives of “the stupidest country on Earth” (Vulgaria) who make it big in Los Angeles but their success is threatened when their cloddish clan come to visit. Jeff Buhai and Steve Zacharias recently did a rewrite for Kings Road and director Michael Gottlieb.

* “Burgerville”: “Airplane!” alumni Jerry and David Zucker wrote and will direct the saga of “the stupidest town in America” this fall. Morgan Creek is producing for release by Fox.

* “Meet the Moron”: A Touchstone project written by Leon Capetanos, “Moron” focuses on “the stupidest man in America.” The irony: Though dumb, he also has the unerring knack of knowing what people like and don’t like.