So yesterday some cinephiles (us) were probably disappointed to hear that Abel Ferrara’s next project was, “Game Of Death,” a B-movie-sounding action thriller starring Wesley “I Need Some Cash To Pay Back The Government” Snipes.
Not that we didn’t want to see the curmudgeonly filmmaker re-team with Snipes again (they worked together on the ’90s classic, “King of New York”), but the news of this project put another directorial effort of Ferrara’s that we are highly anticipating on hold: “Jekyll and Hyde,” the modern re-imagining of the original Robert Louis Stevenson story set to star Forest Whitaker and 50 Cent (though note: “Bronson,” director Nicolas Winding Refn and Keanu Reeves are trying to retell this story as well).
Maybe this this ridiculously awesome concept (uhh, Ferrara directing with 50 Cent and Forest Whitaker playing the scientist and monster doppelgangers? Damn, son) was simply too good to be true and was no longer happening?
Well, Forest Whitaker himself just fanned the flames of hope yesterday, so it sounds like this horrifically absurd classic-to-be is still on track. “Yeah, [the screenwriters] just turned in a new draft,” Whitaker told MTV, saying the project is still in development. However the Academy-Award winning actor is not sure if he’s still going to participate in the project or not. “We’re still figuring out what we’re going to do, if I am going to be doing that or not,” he cautioned. “If I end up doing it, I would be playing Jekyll and he would be playing Hyde.”
Apparently Whitaker has been thinking about the project though and says he and Fiddy are planning to revisit the source material if and when they portray the duality of the classic RLS story.
“It’s a father-son kind of relationship. It’s also [an interesting script] because we are dealing with similar things. You know, this Jekyll has a lot of issues and problems personally, himself. Hidden passions, hidden perversions — and it’s acted out by 50.”
Even Whitaker notes that with Ferrara directing, a picture like this “would be very classic.” Umm, no shit. So what’s the hold up? Or is it that, Ferrara movies are made for a song and they can’t afford an Academy-Award winner anymore? Someone make this happen.