Actor Johnny Depp will collaborate with director Ridley Scott on a series of graphic novels inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The project, Hyde, was announced in a news release from producer Jesse Negron’s company Mechanical Cake. The series, the company says, “imagines a world where Mr. Hyde has defeated Jekyll. Now unencumbered by interruptions from his alter ego, Hyde can finally freely explore his dark tendencies with uninhibited abandon.”
Negron created the series, and Depp, credited with creating the new Hyde character, “will have input on all aspects of the property,” Mechanical Cake says. The novels will be written by Negron and Joe Matsumoto, with the art coming from Gary Erskine and Chris Weston.
“To build within the world of Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterful characters and to be welcomed into the vision of Ridley Scott...and inexplicably having the opportunity to explore, it’s surprising to me, and hopefully surprising to him,” Depp said in a statement. “It’s insane and beautiful to receive that trust from Ridley. A master.”
And Negron said, “This is an incredible opportunity to build a studio-level project that goes directly from the creators to the audience, with no filters in between.”
The first volume of Hyde is scheduled for publication on October 31.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
