David Cronenberg producing a Scanners TV series for HBO

These days, Scanners is probably best known for a GIF where a guy’s head explodes. You can watch the full scene below, blood and brains and all:

Scanners is a 1981 horror movie from director David Cronenberg. It’s about a sideways world where a limited number of people — called Scanners, naturally — have telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Some of them work for a terrorist named Revok (Michael Ironside) who’s trying to take over the world while others work for a secret organization that’s trying to stop them. And at one point Revok uses his powers to make a guy’s head explode, but you already knew that.

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is turning Scanners into a TV series, although it won’t be a straight adaptation of the movie. Instead, the show will be a “visceral thriller set in the mind-bending world of Cronenberg’s film. It will focus on two women living on the fringes of modern society who are pursued by relentless agents with unimaginable powers and thus must learn to work together to topple a vast conspiracy determined to bring them to heel.”

HBO reboots another sci-fi movie from yesteryear with Scanners

This project kind of reminds of Westworld, another HBO show based on an old sci-fi movie. So if Scanners goes that route, the first season will captivate people and the next several will confuse and alienate them until the show eventually fizzles out.

We kid, we kid, Westworld’s alright. Anyway, Black Mirror writer William Bridges will serve as showrunner and Yann Damange — who directed the pilot for Lovecraft Country — will direct. David Cronenberg will executive producer. No word on when the show might hit the airwaves.

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h/t The A.V. Club