Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Deadline has an interesting scoop regarding the character of Jekyll. When I first saw the headline I thought maybe Russell Crowe was out as Jekyll in Universal's big shared universe relaunch of their Universal Monster catalogue.
But this is a different project. Lionsgate is instead readying a competing film that will be an adaptation of the BBC series spearheaded by Steven Moffatt instead of Robert Louis Stevenson. If you haven't checked it out (and you should) it's about a modern day descendant of the famous Dr. Jekyll who has inherited the split personality of his ancestor and does his best to fight it off.
Chris Evans is apparently circling the lead role and I can see the appeal. It allows him to break away from his Captain America persona while giving him a lot to work with character-wise. He'd get to develop two distinct personas and the weird third person that exists in the shifts between the two. That's a lot of meat for an actor.
It's an interesting project. Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry wrote the script (both have worked with Shane Black, Bagarozzi on The Nice Guys and Mondry on Black's upcoming Doc Savage). No director is lined up yet. That'll be the big third piece of the puzzle that will tell us if this will be a real spoiler for the big budget Universal film or “that other Jekyll movie.”
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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