Michael Chernus Joins Amazon’s ‘Dead Ringers’ Opposite Rachel Weisz

Orange Is The New Black alum Michael Chernus will star alongside Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz in Amazon’s upcoming Dead Ringers series.

Based on David Cronenberg’s 1988 cult favorite, Dead Ringers will see Weisz playing the double lead role of Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twins who 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.

Chernus is set to play Tom, a brilliant scientist who is working with Elliot on a groundbreaking but perilous new project. Chernus is perhaps best known for his role as Cal Chapman in Netflix’s OITNB but has appeared in several shows, including main roles in Manhattan, Patriot, and Tommy.

His film credits include Spiderman: Homecoming, Captain Phillips, The Bourne Legacy, and, most recently, in the Netflix film The Kindergarten Teacher, opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal. He can also be seen in the horror-comedy Werewolves Within and David Gutnik’s debut feature Materna, both of which premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

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Dead Ringers, which received a straight-to-series order last year, comes from Weisz, Alice Birch (Normal People), Annapurna Television and Morgan Creek Entertainment. Weisz, Birch, and Stacy O’Neil serve as executive producers, along with Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, and Ali Krug for Annapurna and James G. Robinson, David Robinson, and Barbara Wall for Morgan Creek.

The original film, which Cronenberg co-wrote with Norman Snider, starred Jeremy Irons in the dual role as identical twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliot. The story was based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood, itself a “highly fictionalized” version of the lives of real-life twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus.