klnSome ideas are so weird that they just work. One of them is David Cronenberg retooling Dead Ringers for an HBO series.

The film starred Jeremy Irons as a pair of twin gynecologists. Their hobbies included seducing women and passing them from one brother to the other and designing horrifying surgical tools. A TV series would have to hover in the area of deep unease and not get to the places the movie went, but that would be OK. It could be like Nip/Tuck, only more fucked up. And since it’s HBO they could say fucked up.

Maybe best of all, though, it’s some money for Cronenberg, who is executive producing. A History of Violence showed him to be at the top of his game, even if audiences don’t see that. Having some money coming in means that he can continue to follow his own vision. And who knows – maybe he’ll find that HBO is perfect for his vision after all.

And this is great for HBO, which has been struggling with original programming. Unless the new Mormon show Big Love takes off, the channel will be left with very little by way of quality programming.