LOS ANGELES — Every few years, a film musical puts the genre back in the spotlight. This year, it is “Les Misérables.” In 2008, it was “Mamma Mia!” In 2015, with some luck, it might be “Jekyll and Hyde.”

Mike Medavoy, a prolific film producer whose most musical venture to date was “Black Swan,” and Rick Nicita, a former agent who just started a production company, RP Media, have teamed up to buy film rights to “Jekyll and Hyde.”

The musical, with a book and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and music by Frank Wildhorn, has been on national tour since its revival last year, and returns to Broadway at the Marquis Theater this spring. It was first performed in Houston 23 years ago, and in 1997 opened in New York, where it played for more than three and a half years.

But Hollywood had not picked up the film rights.

“The film musical is a very strange animal,” said Mr. Bricusse, who joined Mr. Wildhorn, Mr. Nicita and Mr. Medavoy in an interview by phone on Friday. “They can bite you in the back, or they can do very well for you.”

“Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a 19th century novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, has inspired its share of films through the years. One starred Spencer Tracy and was nominated for three Oscars in 1942. Another, “Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde,” starred Sean Young and was nominated for three Razzies, which rate Hollywood’s worst offerings, in 1996.

Neither film won an award. But the next version will be poised to try again.

“They’re consistently hits if they’re made well,” Mr. Nicita said of film musicals. For “Jekyll and Hyde,” Mr. Nicita and Mr. Medavoy said the immediate plan is to recruit a director. The producers will then turn to the matter of cast, hoping to get a film on screens in two years.

Casting will be under the watchful eyes of Mr. Bricusse and Mr. Wildhorn, who said they were not simply interested in actors who sing, but rather in first-rate actors who are also first-rate singers.

“That is not a long list,” said Mr. Bricusse.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/jekyll-and-hyde-musical-may-become-a-movie/?partner=rss&emc=rss