Ok, hear me out on this, I think it would be completely feasible to make a modern version of Jekyll and Hyde, extremely faithful to the themes of the original story, while also making it a romance story
ok, so the point of the story, that most adaptations get completely wrong, is that Hyde ISN'T a separate identity or something, it's literally just something to Hyde behind, a mask. Every character describes him as ugly,but in a way that's hard to pin down, they just know he's wrong and evil i, because it obscures Jekyll exclusively while he's doing whatever "criminal impulses," he feels like. And this was Victorian London, so criminal impulses could be literally anything, such as "be mixed race"
And what's a modern issue that could require a mask, and also be what society deems criminal? Crossdressing/being trans
Enter Gabriel Utterson, a regular barrister just getting a drink at the local pub, yet what does he spy across the bar but the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Sure her jaw was a bit squared, and her makeup heavy, but she had the most vibrant orange hair and a confident air about her
He approached her with a drink, and she'd been...surprisingly rude. Churlish, curt, and what few times she smiled they were always at someone else's expense. And yet none all of it dettered his interest. At the end of the night she introduced herself as Heidi, and left
This happens 2 more times, and he gets frustrated because he wants to see her more and get to know her outside of a few hours every few Saturdays. So he asks around the bar to ask if anyone knows her adress, number, anything, nothing. Not a single one of them recognized her out on the street or knew her adress.
Eventually he asks his buddy Hastie, the court officer he works with most often, for advice. And he admits that while he might not be good at detective work specifically, he does know a guy, the forensic scientist the court uses to look at evidence. Dr Henry Jekyll.
Huh, Gabe doesn't know what it is, but he dislikes this guy. A whiny, weak willed, ginger nerd scientist with seemingly no spine. It just seems like he's subconsciously comparing him to someone else and finding him...lacking
