The Jekyll Journals:
Announcing The Cast!

The cast revealed...

Though in our conversations director Scott Zakarin let me know who was cast in Jekyll, he asked me to keep it quiet until Variety could be alerted.

Well, FilmJerk.com got ahold of a few names, and let me know, so Creative Light has given me the okay to run the following press release.

From Creative Light:

Creative Light Entertainment is announcing the start of principal photography on JEKYLL, a retelling of the Robert Louis Stevenson thriller "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Matt Keeslar ("The Last Days of Disco," "Dune") leads a top-flight indie cast in this cyberpunk spin on Stevenson's classic fable about the dark side of man.

Scott Zakarin, a founding partner of Creative Light Entertainment, is both writer and director of JEKYLL. The rest of the cast includes Jonathan Silverman ("The Single Guy," "Weekend at Bernie's"), Alana Ubach ("Legally Blonde" and "Clockwatchers"), Siena Goines ("Judging Amy" and "Arliss"), Desmond Askew ("Go," "Roswell"), Abigail Spencer ("All My Children," "Fathers & Sons") and John Rubenstein ("21 Grams," "Red Dragon").

"I feel very fortunate to direct such a cast of brilliant actors to realize the modernization of Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless novella" says director Scott Zakarin.

While researching how the mind can heal the body, Dr. Henry Jekyll (Keeslar) reasons that the brain is a computer and should be able to interface with external programming. Working with his cyber-savvy lab assistant, Poole (Askew), Jekyll creates a powerful computer game character, Mr. Edward Hyde, which he downloads into his test subject - himself. This event triggers a series of dangerous episodes where Jekyll transforms into a lustful and violent alter ego. Hyde rampages through Jekyll's life and jeopardize everything he treasures-career, marriage, and friendships. The battle with Hyde for control takes a devastating toll on Jekyll (Keeslar), his best friend (Ubach), his fiancé (Spencer), and his mentor (Silverman).

Keeslar starred as Feyd in SCI FI's Dune and was in Stephen King's Rose Red.

"I'm thrilled to be working with Creative Light Entertainment on JEKYLL," Matt Keeslar said. "Scott has done a great job of putting a contemporary spin on Robert Louis Stevenson's novella and I can't wait to bring Jekyll and Hyde to life. They are the equivalent of a cinematic Hamlet."

"I searched for a versatile character actor with the charisma of a leading man and found it in the gifted Matt Keeslar. It's going to be a real pleasure to craft two separate performances with him-Jekyll and Hyde, " says Scott Zakarin.

JEKYLL is executive produced by Rich Tackenberg and produced by Peter Jaysen, Steven J. Fogel and Eric Mittleman for Creative Light Entertainment.

The project begins shooting in January 2004.

Creative Light Entertainment's upcoming projects include Rubber Bands and Reality eXtreme! Rubber Bands tracks two generations of rock star family as they collide in an outrageous battle-of-the-bands showdown. Reality eXtreme! takes viewers behind-the-scenes of what really happens on reality-based television shows. Creative Light Entertainment is also producing a sci-fi thriller starring Renee O'Connor ("Xena: Warrior Princess") called "Xenophobia."

Creative Light Entertainment is a vertically integrated production and distribution company, which has successfully positioned itself as a creative force in the production of high quality genre films. Current projects include the mockumentary, Comic Book: The Movie, a semi-fictional documentary slated for a January 2004 release, which is directed by and starring Mark Hamill (Star Wars) along with some of the best-known voice over artists in the industry. Creature Unknown is a coming of age horror film featuring Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), which is releasing early next year, and Reality eXtreme! is a satirical film about reality dating shows which begins shooting on location next spring.

Recent projects include Coming Out Party, a groundbreaking stand-up comedy film featuring gay and lesbian comedians as they share funny and poignant stories about 'coming out' to their friends and family for the first time and The Sid Caesar Collection: Buried Treasures, which features digitally restored classic sketches from one of the greatest shows of the Golden Age of Television. Other releases include Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels, a one-on-one documentary with filmmaker Kevin Smith, which was acquired by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. This project follows up Creative Light Entertainment's successful release of Mind Meld: Secrets Behind The Voyage of a Lifetime starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy and Showtime's critically acclaimed television documentary Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age of Comedy.

For more information on JEKYLL please visit www.jekyllmovie.com.

Although in truth, that link will pretty much lead you back here. Come back later this week for a preview of the script, perhaps more conversations with key players, and next week we'll be on-set.

Derek McCaw