Chris Evans has achieved superstar status thanks to his many turns as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he’s not afraid of treading darker water. He’s also appeared in movies like Snowpiercer and Sunshine, which makes the news that he may play a version of Dr Jekyll not entirely surprising.
Image: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
Before you jump to conclusions, this Robert Louis Stevenson-inspired project isn’t part of the Universal Monsters multiverse thing that’s about to kick off with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, which will feature Russell Crowe in a role that sounds a lot like Dr Jekyll (and, presumably, Mr Hyde, too). Instead, it’s an adaptation of a 2007 BBC One mini-series, titled Jekyll but about a character named Tom Jackman, who’s a modern-day descendant of the famed and troubled doctor who begins to realise that he’s inherited a very similar dual-personality problem.
Irish actor James Nesbitt played Jackman on TV, from a script written by Steven Moffatt (Sherlock, Doctor Who). Neither original star nor writer appear to have any involvement with the feature film, which in addition to Evans’ casting as the lead already has a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry (The Nice Guys, Doc Savage, Death Note). No director has yet been announced.
[Deadline]