Though his film career continues to hum along nicely, Tim Roth also found success on US TV with crime drama Lie To Me. He’s already been developing another pilot with former Lie producer Alexander Cary, but now David Cronenberg has toddled along with an even more enticing offer, hiring him for the lead in his new series, Knifeman.
The show will focus on radical, self-educated surgeon John Tattersall, a man driven to find out everything he can about the human body. Naturally, this brings him into conflict his superiors and those who just don’t understand his methods, but while we’re guessing that, as with House, he’ll usually be proved right, the presence of Cronenberg means it could be slightly meatier (in every sense of the word) than your average US network show. It's apparently based on Wendy Moore's biography of 18th century surgeon John Hunter, The Knife Man, so you might be able to glean more clues from that.
Rolin Jones, who has worked on Friday Night Lights and Boardwalk Empire, is attached to write the first episode and oversee the show alongside Ron Fitzgerald. Sam Raimi is also on board to produce.