Recent News: ABC buys two Jekyll and Hyde Modern Adaptation Projects

Apparently, ABC has bought two different Jekyll and Hyde themed projects within the past few months. One of them, called "Hyde", is a modern day take on the story of Jekyll and Hyde (reminiscent of the BBC's TV drama "Jekyll" from 2007). Apparently it's written by Sheldon Turner, and the plot:

"...centers on a mild-mannered, 'conflict-averse' ER doctor taking an experimental drug for a degenerative eye condition.  The side effects of the drug include a more assertive version of himself who takes control while he sleeps.  The show is being described as a buddy show where both buddies happen to be the same person."

A different article gives a few more details in its synopsis:

"...[the show] centers on Grant Hyde, a thirtysomething ER doctor with a degenerative eye condition who is conflict-averse and hesitant to be captain of his own destiny. After attempting an experimental treatment to improve his eyesight, he begins to experience a strange side effect — when he goes to sleep, his id manifests itself as Hyde, a fearless, gregarious personality who takes control where Grant cannot."

The second project bought by ABC is simply called "Jekyll and Hyde", written by Matt Lopez, who also helped to write the film The Sorcerer's Apprentice (which does not give me great confidence in the quality of this project - to me, that movie was horribly bland and uninspired). The plot of this project has been described as:

"...a suspenseful, darkly romantic retelling of the classic tale with a unique sci-fi twist that I hear may be cloning-related. Set in modern San Francisco, it centers on a female criminal psychologist who is drawn into the mysterious world of a brilliant but inhibited scientist and his volatile alter ego."

I'll be interested in seeing whether these projects actually get pulled through, but I'm not letting my hopes get up too much after the disappointing incident from a while ago, when several new Jekyll and Hyde film adaptations were announced to be in the works, one of which would have starred the odd combination of Morgan Freeman and Fifty Cent, and the other would have starred Keanu Reeves. Despite the questionable casting choices I allowed myself to get genuinely excited about these projects, only for both to be dropped for various reasons after only a little time had passed.

In this case, I'm not going to anticipate being able to watch either of these shows anytime soon, if at all, but I am hoping that, being TV dramas, they might have more of a chance of survival. Even if they turn out to be bad, at least they'll be something. No major Jekyll and Hyde-based tv show or film projects have actually been completed since 2008, and I think it's about time that this classic story has been brought into the spotlight again.

Since movies first began to be made more than 100 years ago, a decade hasn't gone by during which at least one Jekyll and Hyde adaptation hasn't been created for the screen. Now we've gone almost four years without one, and I think it's high time we focus on continuing this tradition, lest we break our long-held record.

The (1931, Fredric March) Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Movie Drinking Game

This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first ever Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-related drinking game, specifically tailored for the 1931 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde film starring Fredric March. When you next watch this movie, whether you're by yourself or with some friends, take up a glass and drink along! 

(Warning: playing this game may cause participants to temporarily transform into ugly, hairy, ape-like douchebag versions of themselves. By playing this game, you agree to absolve the Jekyll and Hyde Laboratory of all responsibility for your transformation and anything you might do while in a transformed state.)

You can find out more about the idea for the creation of this drinking game here, or continue reading below to learn the rules of the game. If anyone has any questions, would like to suggest a new rule for the game, or wants to name a particular Jekyll and Hyde film that they would like a drinking game to be made for, leave a comment below! Anonymous comments are enabled.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Movie Drinking Games Project

Recently I was curious about about the drinking games created for several different movies, so I dug some up, and as I did so I began to wonder if there were any drinking games for Jekyll and Hyde movie adaptations. After a good bit of searching on google, I had found not even one.

So, I decided that it was only right that at least a few Jekyll and Hyde drinking games be put together by someone, and I might as well be that someone. At least for the moment (if anyone else wants to do this, they can go right ahead!).

So, in the future whenever I have the time, I plan to watch a new Jekyll and Hyde adapted film with an eye open for drink-worthy patterns, lines and events, and compile a list of some of the best rules I came up with to share here. If all goes according to plan, I'll compile individual drinking games for each Jekyll and Hyde film I watch, but I'll also work on a general Jekyll and Hyde drinking game that can be applied to most adapted films, if you want to play a drinking game for a movie I haven't made individual rules for yet.

If anyone else would like to assist me in the creation of these drinking games, either the general one or the individual ones, I would be more than happy to accept help in this endeavor. While I love Jekyll and Hyde, I also have a lot of other projects I'm working on at this moment. If more people help, more can be gotten done, and a lot more fun can be had by all!

I am just about finished with my first J&H drinking game, and I will be posting it here shortly.

Watch!! The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Jack Palance - 1968

You can watch the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Jack Palance from 1968 embedded here for your convenience. You can also find it, and other similar movies, on the Jekyll and Hyde film and video resource page.


Parts 1/8 through 7/8
Available on: Youtube (embedded below is a playlist of all the parts, so all you have to do is press play, and it will cycle through all of them. They ought to be in the correct order




Part 8/8
Available on: Veoh and Novamov
below I have embedded both versions. If one does not work for you, then just try and play the other.


Part 8 on Veoh:


Watch JH Palance Final Part in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Part 8 on Novamov:

Read "Classics Illustrated: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde" by John K Snyder III

Here's the comic/graphic novel adaptation of Dr Jekyll & Hyde by John K Snyder III. It's available in the comic-related page of resources for download in two different formats, but I thought it might be convenient to also share the images directly, in a way that they can be read easily without needing to download anything. So, read and enjoy! Here are approximately 50 pages of abstract, surreal and colorful comic goodness.

Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Weird Random Reads: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Weird Random Reads: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This blogger was awesome enough to share scans of the comic "Supernatural Thrillers: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on their blog "Diversions of the Groovy Kind".

Go read it over on their original blog post, or check out the Jekyll and Hyde Comics & Graphic Novels Resource Page to download the scans of the pages in a .rar file for smoother reading on your own computer. My great thanks goes out to The Groovy Agent for making this comic available to read online for fans of both older comics in general and of Jekyll and Hyde!

Victorian Undead - Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll-Hyde Comic

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll and Hyde Comic

I've finally finished converting this Sherlock Holmes/Jekyll and Hyde Zombie crossover comic from its CDisplay comic format into normal images! It's a great little comic, with art, writing and characterizations of these well-known figures that I have no issues with at all, but indeed thoroughly enjoyed, save for Jekyll's mustache. It's just a matter of personal taste, I know, but in my mind Jekyll doesn't look right with one. Also, Utterson's haircut is hilariously unsuitable to his character. But when those are my only complaints about it, it's certainly not at all bad.

In any case, out of the two Jekyll and Hyde and Sherlock Holmes crossover comics that I've read, this one is by far the best. Definitely worth the trouble I went through in order to share it in a more convenient format.

If you have trouble reading the comics as they appear below, you can find them in a larger format in the imageshack gallery I made of the whole thing. Just click on the images to show them in full size, and then arrows will appear near the top of that image that you an click to see the next page.

I hope you enjoy it!

Current Project: Victorian Undead - Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll-Hyde

Update: This project has been completed! The newly-converted and uploaded comic "Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll-Hyde" is available for reading!


I just wanted to let you in on one of the many projects I'm working on at the moment - I'm converting the short comic "Victorian Undead - Speacial - Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll/Hyde" into a series of jpg pictures that can be read like a normal comic, rather than only with the CDisplay program.

So you can download the original file from the Comics & Graphic Novel Resource Page and find and download CDisplay from some other site if you like, but if you wait just a while then I'll upload a rar or zip file containing all of it in a format that will be vastly more easy to read.

It'll take me a little while to go through and put everything together, since I had to get screen snapshots of the enlarged pages in two parts, but I'm going to go through the trouble of doing this since this comic isn't too long, and it's got good art and an interesting concept. With zombies!! I think it's definitely worth sharing in an accessible format.

However, if you really don't want to wait or download obscure programs to read this, go buy it, and support its creators!

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in "Wishbone: Mixed Breeds"

To many children who grew up in the 90's, the word "Wishbone" is a familiar one. It conjures up memories of a television show in which a cute dog with a wise-cracking voice-over taking on the roles of characters from famous stories and getting dressed up in adorable little doggy costumes. Although I hadn't watched it regularly, I remember some of the episodes fondly, especially the one based on the Hound of the Baskervilles.


So as you can imagine, it delighted me greatly to learn that there was an episode of Wishbone about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I really ought to have known there would be one, since I'd already read books about J&H that featured Wishbone, one called "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Dog" and the other "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Wishbone Classics".

The first one is pretty much the episode in book form, and has Wishbone playing the role of Utterson. The second is a simple abridged version of the book, with the token dog decorating the pages and giving insight into the story without being included as a character, plus some added material to help young readers understand the story. I really wish both of them had featured Wishbone all done up in a suit and a cravat, because it's adorable and I can't get enough of it.

The episode, as is typical with Wishbone, follows two storylines. One is set in the real world following Wishbone's adventures as a normal dog (as normal as a dog with a constant sassy inner monologue and a vast knowledge of classic literature can be) as well as the happenings of the human beings in the world around him. The other one is set in whatever story Wishbone is thinking about, and stars Wishbone as one of the characters. Usually, the plotline set in the real world deals with events and issues that have some resemblance to the story Wishbone imagines.

In the episode of Wishbone about Jekyll and Hyde, called "Mixed Breeds" (which I wished they'd called "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Dog" like the book, to be a bit more clear) Wishbone takes the role of Gabriel Utterson in the plotline based on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This plotline stays pretty faithful to the book- not perfectly, but certainly more than I expected.

For your viewing enjoyment, I have uploaded the full episode and embedded below.



However, if you're only interested in watching the parts involving the re-imagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I have edited together a version comprised of just those. Please forgive the clumsiness of some the transitions, my freeware video editing program is great for some things, but not fading to or from black.



I personally was quite surprised by the quality of the Jekyll and Hyde storyline. I like the actor who played Jekyll and Hyde, and the way they chose to have either half of the dual role portrayed in terms of acting and appearance. The sets were surprisingly good for a childrens television show, the secondary actors worked well, Wishbone was adorable.. I could find nothing to really dislike about it. Of course, it had parts that were inaccurate in terms of the original story, such as the scene set in a bar, but it was much less off-the-mark than most video-based adaptations of the original story.


There were also several instances over the course of the episode which made me explode into laughter, which is always a good thing. One specific case was when Hyde exited the laboratory after his transformation via a secret passage behind a bookcase, and when he slams it shut behind him a bunch of books fall off and hit the floor. That kind of thing never happens in non-comedic movies! It just broke the atmosphere of the whole scene for me, and I loved it.

Otherwise, I always get a kick out of a Hyde who tries to act intentionally evil, in a sort of cliched way. I think it amuses me partly because it reminds me of John Hannah's performance in the role. He was hammy as hell, and utterly hilarious for it. So in this episode, I was having enough fun just watching the Wishbone Hyde acting in an overly-dramatic villainous manner, but then when he started trying to laugh evilly I lost it! I just couldn't take it seriously, no matter how much the show seemed to want me to.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Wishbone's take on the story, and the episode as a whole. I hope you, dear scarce readers, did as well.

A bit of a Transformation

As you might have noticed, I've been making some changes around here. You see, ever since I created this blog with the intention of making it to talk about general topics, I've been using a lot of Jekyll & Hyde related material, and subconsciously focusing on that subject. I realized this after a while, and now I'm making it official. This blog will be dedicated primarily to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and everything to do with it.

As for changes, so far I have changed the name and URL of this blog to better reflect my intentions for its purpose. I am unsure about keeping the html address change - I will have to watch and see if at least some of the links that have been made to this site on google will be updated with my new URL, or if they will be forever broken, unless I decide to change it back. I will wait at least a week and see if there are any improvements on that front before I consider going back to obsessimon.blogspot.com. Even if that happens, I don't think I want to, since the old URL didn't communicate what I want this site to be about now.

In the upcoming weeks/months, I will probably experiment with the design and organization of the material on this blog. I want to come up with a logo as well, but we'll have to see how that goes. If I do create one, I want to do more with it than just slap a few already oft-used Jekyll & Hyde-type images together, so I will probably spend quite a bit of time on it.

In any case, thank you for reading this, and for bearing with me in this transitional period! I hope you stick around to see what I have in store.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Saddleback Classics - Illustration Gallery

 I have here some of the illustrations from Dr. the book Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Saddleback Classics) by Janice Greene. The creators of all of the artwork in this book are only listed as "Black Eagle Productions".

I think it's a pity that there aren't any specific artists or designers mentioned for these illustrations. While I find the cover art to be a bit odd - I mean, that face that (I assume Hyde) is pulling is really derpy - I really enjoyed the art inside the book itself, as little as there is.

The aspects I really like about the internal illustrations are their cleanness (something I really appreciate after seeing some really sloppy artwork in other J&H books), the composition of the scenes, the use of hatching and texture and the level of detail in both the figures and the backgrounds. I also really like how much its style makes me think of that of coloring books, since I think it would be fun to have one about Jekyll & Hyde. Since I don't know about the existence of any, these pictures make for a great substitute.

As for problems with them, I personally could do with more variation in line width and contrast, since I often find it hard to focus my eye on any one part of a picture when everything in it is white or very light gray. And in pictures with no coloring and the barest minimum of shading like these, there is very little that works to distinguish background from foreground or lines that define shapes from those that add detail or texture. It would have been helpful if the lines' width and quality were somehow used to make these distinctions clearer.

Comments on Dr Jekyll -- "Jekyll & Hyde" (bitComposer, 2010) PC Game

So I've recently been working away at the Jekyll & Hyde computer game released by bitComposer just in this past year. It all opens with an animated prologue that got me genuinely interested in the game it preluded. It wasn't terribly complicated, but it was good, the narration was dramatic, the story was interesting, and I liked how it was made to look like drawn illustrations from a book.

Upon actually starting to play the game itself, however, that feeling of anticipation was quickly eviscerated. But at least more animated sequences popped up after I finished certain sections of the game, so I got a little bit of something to enjoy.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Lorenzo Mattotti - Illustration Gallery

 

These pictures are all cut from Lorenzo Mattotti's brilliant graphic novel adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I wanted to share some bits of it, just to give you a sample of its beautiful, grotesque, colorful and fascinating surrealistic imagery. It's got quite the unique style. I am not posting these in order to profit, only to show off how awesome the artwork, and encourage people to read the graphic novel itself.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Cam Kennedy - Illustration Gallery

These pictures are all taken from a version of Cam Kennedy's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde graphic novel, which has been pared down to a simple illustrated e-book rather than a full-out comic. A link to which can be found in the resource page, I believe. Anyways, I am sharing them here without any copyright infringement intended, I just want to show off some of this guy's artwork. Besides, these pictures have been lifted from something that was shared for free already.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

The OTHER Jekyll & Hyde Musical (with Kirk Douglas) Song 6

Song 6: Our Time Together



Comments

A fairly straightforward song in which Carew bids farewell to his daughter as she is engaged to Jekyll, expressing how hard it is for him to let her go from this life. Hmm, I wonder where I've heard a song like this before? Really, the more I examine this musical the more I am sure that Frank Wildhorn, or someone who had a hand in the creation of the Broadway Jekyll & Hyde Musical, had seen this film and taken some ideas from it.

Updates: Resources and Plans

As you may or may not have already noticed, I've published a number of pages full of Jekyll and Hyde-related online resources. There's a main page up on the top bar which links to all of the other resource pages, and then each of the individual resource category pages were uploaded to the blog itself.

This resource collection page was started by the administrator of a Jekyll & Hyde Fan Club over on deviantart. She has graciously allowed me to partially take over this project, include the information here on this site, and to use the format she had previously laid out. I think it's a great idea, and very useful for any Jekyll and Hyde fans. I hope for the expansion of the resource lists to be an ongoing project, and I invite anyone who wants to share links to online resources that have not already be included here to do so.

Jekyll & Hyde Resources: Books and Dramas

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde RESOURCES:

Books and Dramas

Main Resource Page

Transcripts of the original story, as well as various adaptations or rewritten versions of it in the form of books or dramas.

Jekyll & Hyde Resources: Videos and Full Length Movies

 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde RESOURCES:
Videos and Full-Length Movies

Main Resource Page

Jekyll & Hyde related movies that are available to watch online for free, now arranged in order of date, from earliest to latest.

Jekyll & Hyde Resources: Comics and Graphic Novels

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde RESOURCES:

Comics and Graphic Novels

Main Resource Page

Various websites at which you can read and/or download various Jekyll & Hyde adapted comics and graphic novels.

Note about CDisplay:
Many of these comics are available in a format which can only be read by the program CDisplay (such as .cbz, .cbr files), which can be downloaded for free at a number of different websites - here is one site where you can download it. If that one doesn't work for you, just Google "download CDisplay" and try another. It is a small and relatively easy-to-use program.

Jekyll & Hyde Resources: Audio, Radio and Music

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde RESOURCES:
Audio, Radio and Music

Main Resource Page

Various online audio media related to Jekyll and Hyde: Radio dramas, audio books, songs and music, soundtracks, etc.

Jekyll & Hyde Resources: Articles and Comprehension Guides

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde RESOURCES:

Articles and Comprehension Guides

Main Resource Page

Various websites and articles that can help readers to understand the story of Jekyll and Hyde, and consider it from different perspectives and in different contexts.

Jekyll & Hyde Resources: Miscellaneous and Games

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde RESOURCES:
Miscellaneous and Games

Main Resource Page

Links to JH-related things - fansites, musical lyrics, clips, fanfiction, manga, almost anything even remotely on topic - that doesn't fall into any other resource categories. Also included (at the bottom) is the section on J&H games, which is too small to really be given its own page.

Director of Jekyll & Hyde Movie Dies at 83

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/04/2699702/charles-jarrott-british-film-director.html

Sad news: the director of the brilliant 1968 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde film starring Jack Palance has died  recently at the age of 83. As a huge fan of that adaptation, I grieve. He made one heck of a great movie.

Dr Jiggle and Mr Sly - Veggie Tales version of Jekyll and Hyde

Anyone like Veggie Tales? Anyone like Jekyll and Hyde? Well, both kinds of pepple will be happy to hear that I've uploaded the animated short "Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly", a comical spoof on Jekyll and Hyde that comes from the Veggie Tales DVD "A Snoodle's Tale". Since it's adorable, and it seems nobody else has put it online, I wanted to share it. It's really too cute to just remain in obscurity. So enjoy!

Dr Jiggle and Mr Sly - Introduction (Youtube)




Dr Jiggle and Mr Sly - Main Movie (Veoh)