Rachel Weisz plays 'Dead Ringers' in new Prime Video series

Seeing double can be unsettling, and in a new series version of a celebrated movie thriller, that's just what it's meant to be.

A revision of "Dead Ringers" starts its Prime Video run Friday, April 21, and it's a very significant update in that it changes the gender of the twin gynecologists at the heart of the story. Originally played by Jeremy Irons in director David Cronenberg's 1988 film, the dual roles of Elliot and Beverly Mantle are assumed now by Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, who portrays them as being particularly dedicated to bringing women's health care issues to the forefront.

However, that doesn't mean that the Mantles always play by the rules ... far from it, in fact. Series showrunner, writer and (along with others including Weisz) Alice Birch maintains Cronenberg's approach by depicting the sisters as devoted to helping patients within a system that can pose hurdles to those seeking help, particularly where techniques and costs are concerned. Beverly and Elliot are committed to assisting those in need of their services, even if that means devising new approaches that flirt with the boundaries of medical ethics.

"Dead Ringers" has a certain basis in fact, since the original drama was inspired by Stewart and Cyril Marcus, actual twin gynecologists ... though liberties were taken by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland in their related novel "Twins," which Cronenberg and his screenwriting partner Norman Snider used as a resource for their script. Critics generally deemed the resulting film unsettling but compelling, and it also was notable for its casting of twin sisters in supporting roles: Jill Hennessy, later of television's "Law & Order" and "City on a Hill," and her sibling Jacqueline.

For Weisz, as it was with Irons, "Dead Ringers" poses a double challenge ... developing two characters that each are singular enough, while also maintaining the sort of close connection special to twins, particularly those who are accustomed to sharing virtually every aspect of their lives. For the Mantles, that doesn't only mean their mutual profession, but in some cases the other personal relationships that they cultivate.

Weisz surely has the experience to meet that task, confirmed not only by her Academy Award for "The Constant Gardener," but a vast range of stage and screen projects that have spanned everything from "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Lovely Bones" to "The Mummy" and "About a Boy." And for whatever chills she sends down viewers' spines with "Dead Ringers," she has a husband who can handle those, since he's been James Bond: She's married to Daniel Craig.

As much suspense as such a project ordinarily might generate, then, the nature of "Dead Ringers" makes it within reason to double that expectation.