Keanu Reeves To Bare His Hyde Side As Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Keanu Reeves is feeling the pull of Victorian horror once again as he signs on to star in an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This time, the Bram Stoker's Dracula actor will star in a modern take on the classic, simply titled Jekyll, and which is to be scripted by Revolutionary Road screenwriter Justin Haythe.
Not satisfied with having examined the mind of Britain's most notorious prisoner, Bronson director Nicolas Winding Refn is in negotiations to take on the legendary two-sided protagonist. The project was just one of Universal's visions for the book, the other being developed for Guillermo Del Toro to helm. However, Keanu's modern reimagining will be the polar opposite of the fantastical Victorian version which could be set out for Del Toro after he is finished with The Hobbit.
Although producers are keeping plot details for the modern take close to their chests, the original Robert Louis Stevenson tale followed an experimenting doctor who, when trying to purge himself of all evil, accidentally creates a dark side for himself that he sets loose on London's seedy underworld. The most recent adaptation of the story by the BBC brought the split-personalitied one up to date in 2008 for a mini-series starring Dougray Scott.
Reeves is up next in retirement-relationship drama (yes, we know he's not old enough) The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, and is rumoured to be taking the title role in gangland biopic Stompanato. Haythe, who also wrote Robert Redford's The Clearing, is currently working on a remake of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
INT. THE TOTALLY BODACIOUS LAB OF THE TOTALLY RADICAL SCIENTIST - NIGHT
JEKYLL Whoa, there's strange things are definetly a foot in this lab dude!
HYDE Yea, it's like totally causing me to grow hair in small places man!
JEKYLL Whoa, that's totally gnarly dude, it looks like Kool Aid.
HYDE Yea, it tastes like Kool Aid, too dude!
JEKYLL & HYDE Excellent!
They strum their air guitar and knock over the rest of the lab specimens. The lab SPARKS, catches fire and EXPLODES.
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Given the title and that the reception of the BBC show in the US got more notice for Moffat and, inexplicably, work for Bellman over there, it is hard to escape the view this project has more to do with Moffat's than anything else. I wonder how close it will be?
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He actually did an ok job in The Gift, nothing amazing, but enough to suggest he might actually be better as a bad guy. Dougray Scott did make a tv film of Jekyll and Hyde last year, but it wasn't the BBC mini-series (which was actually from 2007). ... Read More
Can't remember the last time I laughed so much at a casting choice. How are they going to move his face for Jekyll? Most emotion the man has ever come close to showing on screen was behind the CGI in A Scanner Darkly. ... Read More
I'd say Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Matt Damon, not Keanu Reeves well maybe if he's playing Bill Hyde and Ted Jekyll. Not too sure about this casting choice. ... Read More
I used to like Keanu Reeves and in some parts I still do, but since watching him in The day the earth stood still, I conclude he can't pull off zainy and interesting characters, Klaatu was played so dull that I recon the film would have been far more better if a more charismatic and wild actor played him.
Same with doctor Jekyl and Hyde, I personally recon I wont be able to tell the difference between the two as he will be reading the lines in the same wooden way he always plays larger then li... Read More
