ABC Buys Second Jekyll & Hyde Project

To have two competing projects at the same time isn't nothing new. Just ask th makes of the two Snow White films featuring Lily Collins (Blindside) in one, and Kristin Stewart (Twilight) in the other. You could also look at the great race to destroy Earth, when Michael Bay's Armageddon and Deep Impact slugged it out in the same summer.

But there is a twist with these competing projects because this time around they are being developed at the SAME studio, ABC. Could both make it to air? Maybe, but most likely not. Obviously whoever is in charge at ABC television division is must be a big fan of the classic tale of Dr. Jekyll and his alter ego Hyde.

Maybe the oddest part in all of this is that ABC is also developing the Marvel superhero HULK into a television show as well. And the hulk is a modern retelling of the Dr. Jekyll & Hyde story. So actually, ABC is really developing THREE stories all with basically the same plot.

Second, Mark Gordon Co. project announced today

ABC has bought a second high-profile drama project that takes on Robert Louis Stevenson’s split-personality tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll & Hyde, from ABC Studios, studio-based Mark Gordon Co. and feature writer Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), is 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-day 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.

First, Sheldon Turner's project announced August 22nd

Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic split-personality tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is getting a contemporary interpretation with Hyde, a drama series project from Up In the Air co-writer Sheldon Turner and ABC Studios that has been set up at ABC. This marks the first sale for Sheldon and Jennifer Klein’s recently launched company Vendetta, which has a first-look deal at ABC Studios. Turner will write Hyde, which 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. Turner and Klein will executive produce the project, described as an odd buddy show where the buddies happen to be the same person.