Last year, it was announced that Rachel Weisz will be producing and starring in an Amazon TV series inspired by David Cronenberg's 1988 film Dead Ringers (get it HERE), and now two actors have signed on to join her in the cast. They are Michael Chernus (Werewolves Within) and Poppy Liu (Hacks), and both are taking on "series regular" roles.
Based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland (pick up a copy at THIS LINK), the original film starred Jeremy Irons as twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle. In the show, it's Weisz who will be playing the Mantle twins,
the most successful, brilliant and extraordinary people you’ve never met. Identical from head to toe, these two OB-gyns are on a mission to change the way women birth, starting with Manhattan. Drugs, pioneering but very much illegal medical research, sex and falling in love, this drama based on the David Cronenberg 80s cult classic, takes us to darker and stranger territory than we could have possibly imagined.
Chernus will be playing Tom, "a brilliant scientist, working with Elliot on a groundbreaking but perilous new project". Liu's character is Greta, "Beverly and Elliot's watchful and meticulous house manager who runs their lives with complete efficiency and her own hidden agenda".
It has been said that the Dead Ringers series will feel similar to the film, but will
have a different tone and explore themes like women’s health and the issues it faces, including underfunding, as it focuses on the two professional women, the Mantle twins, who are excellent at their jobs while also trying to navigate life outside of work. In the series, the Mantle twins share everything: drugs, lovers, and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes, including pushing the boundaries on medical ethics in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s healthcare to the forefront.
An Amazon Studios and Annapurna Television co-production, Dead Ringers is being executive produced by Weisz, writer Alice Birch, Stacy O'Neil, Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Ali Krug, James G. Robinson, David Robinson, and Barbara Wall.