Chris Evans has been attached to play Tom Jackson in the feature film adaptation of the BBC’s Steven Moffat-penned 6-part 2007 miniseries, Jekyll, since late July now, and while few updates on the project have been given since then, Deadline reports that Lionsgate has pegged Zombieland and Gangster Squad director Ruben Fleischer to helm the project.
Between Jekyll and Sony’s Zombieland 2, Fleischer has a busy schedule in the coming years, which brings up the question of which project he’ll tackle first. While signs point to it being Zombieland 2, if only for the reason that he’s been attached to it longer, Chris Evans has a jam-packed schedule too between the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film he’ll pop up in, so we’ll have to wait and see what is worked out.
The Nice Guys writers Anthony Bagarozzi & Charles Mondry have written a script for the project, which Fleischer will further work on with them, while Marc Platt, Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman are all set to produce under their A Very Good Production banner.
The film follows a contemporary descendant of Jekyll (Evans) as he starts losing his sanity and developing a split personality.
In the near future, the world may be getting two movies based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from two competing studios. The other is a standalone movie centered around Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll being developed by Universal for their Universal Monsters shared universe. The universe kicks off next year with The Mummy, a film that Crowe will have a small part in. Watch the trailer for The Mummy here.
