While David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller Dead Ringers—starring Jeremy Irons as twin gynecologists as brilliant as they are unstable—remains a tense, potent viewing experience, Prime Video’s upcoming series version starring Rachel Weisz is the rare revamp we can’t wait to see. Today’s new trailer only makes us more intrigued.
Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard Nerd Out About Jurassic Park’s Returning Heroes
Here’s the trailer, followed by some insights from Weisz and executive producer Alice Birch from a recent press event heralding the series’ Prime Video debut in April.
“Well, I was a huge fan of the original Cronenberg film. From the first moment I saw it, I could never forget it. I’ve been obsessed with that film for most of my life,” Weisz revealed at the press conference. Birch, however, said she hadn’t seen Dead Ringers before learning about the Prime Video project, but that she “sat down and watched it, and then watched it again immediately after. It was extraordinary.”
Switching the main characters from male to female—while keeping them gynecologists with an uncomfortably close twin relationship—obviously set the series apart from a standard remake. “It felt like it would just be really interesting to tell this story with two women at the center of it,” Birch said. “But I don’t know that Rachel and I ever had conversations where we said, ‘Okay, well, now that they’re women, how does that change it?’ It, of course, changes everything, but it also changes nothing. That’s what I think, we wanted it to be as fun and as wild as the film and let the series go in its own direction. And then setting it against a medical background that particularly focused on obstetrics and gynecology—that felt really right for the storytelling.”
Part of how Dead Ringers achieved that tone, Birch said, was through a writer’s room staffed entirely by women. “We had an all-female writers room, which, honestly, we approached the best writers and the writers who I think we felt would really connect with the material and just be challenged but a bit excited by this kind of story. And it meant that while I think everyone brings their own personal experiences to a writers room, this was also hugely imaginative as well. People were sort of researching and reading and watching and, you know, contributing and feeding off each other as well as bringing their own kind of personal experiences.”
Weisz said that playing Drs. Beverly and Elliot Mantle—who share a lot of the same scenes—was “without a doubt the biggest challenge of my acting life. No question about that.” But the Oscar winner also called it “the most joyous, in many ways. [Playing dual roles] was hard work. But wasn’t just me. It was the effects, motion control, hair, make-up, the set dressers, props. I mean, everybody was shifting from one character to the next—I didn’t shoot Beverly for one day and then Elliot for another day. It was within one scene. So we would shoot one half and then shoot the other half. We were moving as a living unit on the set. It was thrilling. I mean, exciting as maybe learning to walk a tightrope, which I definitely can’t do. But we all learned together.”
Weisz said she’s looking forward to the audience’s reception of the series. “It’s a pretty wild ride at times. There’s a lot of mischief. It’s quite deliciously mischievous at times. Emotional. Moving. And there is some humor, also. Some darkly, darkly humorous [moments].”
Along with Weisz as the Mantle twins, Dead Ringers’ cast includes Britne Oldford (The Umbrella Academy, American Horror Story: Asylum) as Genevieve—a character who seems to be inspired by (and also named for) Geneviéve Bujold’s character from the original film, as well as Poppy Liu (Hacks, iCarly), Michael Chernus (Severance, Orange is the New Black), Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty, Saint Maud), and Emily Meade (The Deuce, The Leftovers). The first two episodes are directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Nest, The Iron Claw); he also co-directed the finale. Other directors include Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, Girlfight), Karena Evans (P-Valley, Snowfall), and Lauren Wolkstein (A Friend of the Family, Y: The Last Man).
All six episodes of Dead Ringers will stream April 21 on Prime Video. io9 will have more soon.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
