Casting News - February 18, 2014
CBS' Battle Creek; FOX's Hieroglyph; Hallmark's When Calls the Heart; NBC's Tooken; Netflix's Untitled KZK Drama; and WGN America's Manhattan.
NETFLIX's UNTITLED KZK DRAMA
- Jacinda Barrett (Zero Hour, Suits) will co-star opposite Kyle Chandler on the upcoming drama series from the creators of Damages. She will play the strong-willed and devoted wife of the family's "responsible" brother John (Chandler). Additionally, Johan Renck (Breaking Bad, Vikings) has signed on to direct the first episode of the series.
NBC's TOOKEN
- Tristram Shapeero (Community, Parks and Recreation) will direct the first episode of the single camera comedy series starring Ellie Kemper and written by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock - which was ordered straight-to-series.
HALLMARK's WHEN CALLS THE HEART
- James Brolin (Castle, Community) will guest star in the season finale of the period drama - set to air on March 29. He will play Jedidiah Black, a circuit judge and a legendary man who is insolent, insufferable and incorruptible who is welcomed to Coal Valley in a bid to bring justice to the town. The role has the potential to return should the drama be picked up for a second year.
CBS' BATTLE CREEK
- House alum Kal Penn is reuniting with the medical drama's creator David Shore on his and Vince Gilligan's high-profile drama series. He is the first actor to join the project. He will play another detective stationed in Battle Creek, Michigan who has reservations about the newly arrived agent from the FBI.
WGN AMERICA's MANHATTAN
- Olivia Williams (Dollhouse, Terriers) has landed the female lead role on the upcoming drama series starring John Benjamin Hickey. She will play Liza Winter, a brilliant botanist with a complicated past who begins to notice unsettling changes to the environment when she accompanies her husband (Hickey) to the secret birthplace of the atomic bomb.
FOX's HIEROGLYPH
- Caroline Ford and Antony Bunsee have been cast on the upcoming period drama set in ancient Egypt. Ford will play Peshet, an adoratrice with the wits of a thief and the convictions of a sage. Bunsee will play Rouser, Captain of the Pharoah's (Reece Ritchie) Guard, a dour man with a presence like cold granite.
