Rachel Weisz admits she is ‘obsessed’ with David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers

Rachel Weisz has revealed she was ‘obsessed’ with David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, as she prepares to star in a bloody remake of the 1988 film.

The actress, 53, is a far cry from her usual sweetheart type as a twin gynaecologist surgeons who share a (female) lover and eventually go through a deadly, drug induced breakdown. 

In the original, British actor Jeremy Irons played the twins, Elliot and Beverly Mantle, whom nobody can tell apart. 

The new version has been turned into a six part series for Prime Video by writer Alice Birch, who also has credits on Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Succession.

Weisz, 53, who lives in New York with actor Daniel Craig and their family, told The Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff she is ‘obsessed’ with the Cronenberg film.

Coming soon: Rachel Weisz has revealed she was ‘obsessed’ with David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, as she prepares to star in a bloody remake of the 1988 film

She brought the idea of a remake to Prime Video and is credited as a producer. Her characters — also called Elliot and Beverly — are now working as surgeons in New York. At its heart, though, it is still about the relationship between the twins.

She said: ‘Beverly is altruistic, thoughtful, careful, and kind. She wants to change the way women give birth. 

‘Elliot is very, very different. She’s not altruistic and she’s pushing the boundaries of what’s ethical.’ 

Writer Birch has also worked in elements of the tragic death of Eva Rausing, wife of Tetra Pak heir Hans, whose body was discovered several months after her death in 2012 under bedding in the couple’s London mansion. 

‘They were very dark co-dependents,’ Weisz said of the Rausings.

In the series, Rachel stars alongside Britne Olford from American Horror Story who plays Genevieve and Poppy Liu, best known for her role in Better Call Saul, who plays Greta. 

Also in the ensemble is Michael Chernus from Orange Is The New Black, as Tom, Jennifer Ehle, from Zero Dark Thirty, as Rebecca, and Emily Meade, from The Deuce, as Susan.

Rachel Weisz – who was spotted in NYC with husband Daniel earlier this month –  also serves as an executive producer for the limited series, which is created, written, and executive produced by Emmy-nominated writer and playwright Alice Birch (Normal People, Succession, The Wonder).

Iconic: In the original, British actor Jeremy Irons played the twins, Elliot and Beverly Mantle, whom nobody can tell apart

Iconic: In the original, British actor Jeremy Irons played the twins, Elliot and Beverly Mantle, whom nobody can tell apart

Anticipated: The new version has been turned into a six part series for Prime Video by writer Alice Birch, who also has credits on Sally Rooney's Normal People and Succession

Anticipated: The new version has been turned into a six part series for Prime Video by writer Alice Birch, who also has credits on Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Succession

The trailer begins with the doors of a hospital opening and a doctor walking out, as we see both Beverly and Elliot clad in red.

One is sitting back in her chair with a hand over her belly and her hair tied back, while the other is hunched over, hair flowing over her shoulders with blood all over her face.

The trailer – set to Blondie’s 1979 hit single Heart of Glass – shows them both sitting next to each other, while another shot shows them in more professional attire while looking at a newborn baby.’

‘Erraticism always begins with something small,’ one of the sisters says, which means, ‘the action or tendency to be erratic.’

Like the first shot, both sisters appear identical, though they one always has their hair down and the other always up.

The final shot shows one of the sisters in bed while the other plops down right next to her.

Amazon first announced the project in August 2020, giving it a straight-to-series order, with production beginning in August 2021.

The original David Cronenberg film was adapted from the 1977 novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland, which was loosely based on the true story of twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus.

They were both found dead in July 1975 in separate rooms of Cyril’s Manhattan apartment at just 45 years of age, with Stewart dying of a barbiturate overdose and Cyril suspected of possibly taking his own life in a suicide pact after finding his brother dead.

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk