The cinematic treatment of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde has been varied. Fredric March’s benchmark portrayal of the character in 1931 remains the high water mark, though Spencer Tracy has tried his hand at it and the less said about 1995’s Dr Jekyll & Ms Hyde the better. The main point here is that it has been a really long time since the story was told well on the big screen. Cameos for Jekyll & Hyde in LXG and Van Helsing did what is a fascinating and complex character scant justice and so Hammer Films enter the fray.
Off the back of Let Me In, The Resident, Wakewood and The Woman In Black, Hammer are now eying a remake of the Jekyll & Hyde tale, currently working with the title “Wake”. Such an unarresting title seems an odd choice, given how well known the name Jekyll is, but to each their own. Mikael Håfström (Derailed, 1408, The Rite) is being lined up to direct and after a first draft of the script was completed by Christopher Borrelli (Whisper, The Marine 2), a second pass at it has been taken by Matt Sand (Ninja Assassin).
Hammer say that the remake involves a modern Jekyll & Hyde who “knows no bounds”. Quite what they mean by that is anyone’s guess, though it could mean a heightened body count, an increased gruesomeness, or a more vicious Hyde. To be honest, if they can capture even a fraction of the pathos and conflicted nature of March’s portrayal I will be both pleased and surprised. So, pleasantly surprised then.
We haven’t any sort of timescale or casting news for you yet, but we can thank Deadline for having got us at least this far.
