ZOMBIELAND Director Ruben Fleischer to Direct Chris Evans in JEKYLL
Lionsgate has hired Zombieland director Ruben Fleisher to helm their new film Jekyll, which will star Chris Evans. The movie is an adaptation of Steven Moffat's 2007 BBC One miniseries, which continued the events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Evans will take on the role of Tom Jackman, "a modern-day descendant of Jekyll who is beginning to exhibit the trademark split personality. The father and husband abandons his family, without explaining why, and lives in a fortified basement with a psychiatric nurse as his ally. When they strap the doctor to a metal chair, she watches him transform into an alter ego who rages, shows heightened strength and speed and can be a charming, flirtatious scoundrel as well. The two personalities try to co-exist, even though one doesn’t remember what the other does while in control of the body. They use a microcassette to leave messages for each other. Unable to stay away from the family he left behind for their own safety, he visits his wife, Hyde assumes control and learns about them, and things grow very complicated."
The script was written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, who both also worked on the Shane Black-directed The Nice Guys and the upcoming adaptation of Doc Savage, and the remake of Netflix's Death Note. With these guys on board, at least we know that the film will have a strong script.
Fleischer is currently developing Zombieland 2 for Sony Pictures, but there's no word on when that will happen. I imagine Jekyll will happen before Zombieland 2 because that sequel is still in the process of trying to lock down the return of its stars.
It seems like Fleischer is a good fit for this project, and it'll be interesting to see what he ends up doing with it.
Source: Deadline