Say what you will about Keanu Reeves, but there are certain roles that the guy is pretty well-suited for… basically anything cold, emotionless and alien. Which is why I’m not quite convinced that he’s the right man to star in a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Can you see Keanu hulking out? I sure can’t. Either way, he has apparently signed on to star in Universal’s “modern retelling of the classic novella”, which is being written by Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road).

What may yet sell some people on the film, however, is the fact that Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn is in talks to direct. This is the guy behind The Pusher Trilogy, Bronson, and the upcoming Valhalla Rising, all of which are known for being rather gritty and gruesome. This would be his first major studio film. The weird thing is, Universal already has another Jekyll and Hyde movie in development with Guillermo Del Toro. It is expected to be much more rooted in gothic horror, but with everything else Del Toro has going on, they don’t expect it to happen for at least another 5 years. Which project sounds more interesting to you? Is Nicolas Winding Refn about to go mainstream?