We've come to expect the unexpected from David Cronenberg, and we certainly didn't foresee that his first feature film in four years, "A Dangerous Method," would turn out to be a talky, stagey, history lesson (even with a good deal of spanking). Neither did we expect that he'd ever be directing a cast that included Robert Pattinson and Jay Baruchel, but we'll see them both in "Cosmopolis" later this year. And we certainly didn't expect that the director, having not stepped onto a television set in over two decades (he helmed an episode of the shortlived "Friday The 13th" series), would be headed back to the small screen.
Cronenberg is set to direct the pilot and executive produce a series backed by Media Rights Capital called "Knifeman." The series has been written by Rolin Jones ("Friday Night Lights") and is based on a novel by Wendy Moore. According to THR the story "follows the trials and triumphs of a radical, self-educated surgeon delivering a visceral and psychological portrait of the extraordinary and unorthodox lengths he will go to to uncover the secrets of the human body." Hmm, we wonder what could possibly have attracted Cronenberg to this project, it just doesn't seem to be his thing at all, does it?
Okay, sarcasm aside, this sounds like the perfect project for Cronenberg. We're just saddened to hear that he won't be directing the entire series. Kudos to MRC for getting Cronenberg on board, but you may remember that they're also the company behind David Fincher and Kevin Spacey's Netflix series "House of Cards," so they're certainly no strangers in attracting big talent to small screen projects. And indeed, Sam Raimi is also among the small handful of folks pitching in on the executive producer end as well.
No news yet on where the series will air, but we can only imagine there will be a lot of interest from HBO, Showtime, Netflix and the like.