Looks like our favorite purveyor of bodily horror is headed to the tube…
THR has it that David Cronenberg (above) is indeed going the TV route, setting up an unorthodox medical drama called “Knifeman” he’ll soon shop to buyers. Sounds to me like the dude is sick of all the bullshit medical procedurals on primetime networks, so much so he’s fin to show us all how it’s really done…
“Knifeman” – which Cronenberg will direct (pilot) and exec-produce – focuses on the trials and triumphs of a radical, self-educated surgeon, delivering a visceral portrait of the extraordinary and unorthodox lengths he will go to uncover the secrets of the human body. Rolin Jones (“Friday Night Lights”, “Weeds”, “Smash”) is writing from a story he hatched with Ron Fitzgerald.
Pretty opaque, I know…but come on, it’s Cronenberg. Dude’s the master of body perversion, be it THE FLY, EXISTENZ, or my personal favorite, DEAD RINGERS. We can assume he’s going to dish something awfully unsettling, regardless of it clings to genre conventions or not. For that, we ought to keep an eye on “Knifeman’s” development…if for the pilot at least. Besides, Sam Raimi is part of the Stars Road team co-producing the pilot.
Perhaps most important, it’ll be interesting to see which network shows interest. Will it be a premium pay cable, a la HBO, Showtime or Starz? Will FX, AMC or A&E show interest? Where it lands may be just as telling of the content as anything else. We shall see…
Sarah Gadon, star of Cronenberg’s newest, COSMOPOLIS
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