Oscar-nominated actor Tim Roth has been cast in David Cronenberg's Knifeman, Deadline reports.

Roth will star in the series, based on Wendy Moore's biography of John Tattersall, an 18th-century self-taught surgeon, whose methods were unorthodox to say the least. Using thousands of human corpses, many of which were purchased from body-snatchers, Tattersall attempts to discover the secrets of the human body.

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Cronenberg, who's known for his visceral horror films including Videodrome and The Fly, will direct the pilot of the straight-to-series project. He will also serve as an executive producer.

The series, which will be pitched to major networks soon, is written by Friday Night Lights' Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald, who also serve as executive producers along with Sam Raimi, Josh Donen and Robert Zotnowski.

Knifeman is Roth's second American series. He most recently starred on the Fox procedural Lie to Me.