Casting News: Jamie Bell, Gillian Anderson, ‘Beverly Hills Cop’

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Christine Lahti has signed on to CBS’ version of the Beverly Hills Cop film franchise. The series, titled “Beverly Hills PD”, comes to us from Shawn Ryan, creator of the recently-departed “Last Resort”. Ryan also was a writer on FX’s hit series “The Shield”.

Lahti will play the police captain on the upcoming police procedural. The actress returns to CBS as a drama series regular, as Lahti is best known for her role on CBS’ “Chicago Hope”. More recently, she’s had arcs on CBS’ own “Hawaii Five-0″ and NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” (and on the criminally-underrated, one-season WB series “Jack and Bobby”).

The series will center on Axel Foley’s police officer son (Brandon T. Jackson), who fights crime in Beverly Hills. Eddie Murphy is expected to return in a cameo role on the show.

Via: Entertainment Weekly

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Meanwhile, former “Billy Elliot” star Jamie Bell has been cast in AMC’s upcoming Revolutionary War drama “Turn”.

The series, from Nikita creator Craig Silverstein and executive producer Barry Josephson, is based on Alexander Rose’s book Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring.

Bell plays Abraham Woodhull, a farmer who forms a group of spies with his allies in the summer of 1778. His group ultimately ends up aiding the movement for American independence. Bell is best known from his breakout role in 2000′s “Billy Elliot” and supporting roles in “Jumper,” “Nicholas Nickleby” and “Jane Eyre”, not to mention his role in Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” music video alongside Evan Rachel Wood, which I feel vaguely troubled to have remembered off-hand.

Meegan Warner will play Abraham’s wife Mary, and if it approaches the quality of AMC’s other big period shows, “Hell On Wheels” and “Mad Men”, I can’t wait.

Via: TVLine.com

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Lastly, Gillian Anderon, former star of “The X-Files”, has been cast in an upcoming, untitled NBC drama also starring “666 Park Avenue” star Rachael Taylor.

The series is described as “an emotionally charged action thriller set in and around the world of Washington DC,” and the pilot centers on an idealistic Secret Service agent who lands at the center of an international crisis on his first day on the job when the President’s son and several of his classmates are kidnapped.

Taylor plays FBI agent Susie Dunn, whose niece, Amber, is one of the kidnapped kids. Anderson plays her estranged sister, Meg, with whom Susie must reconnect while investigating the case. Meg is described as “the dynamic, attractive CEO of a multi-conglomerate who is horrified by Amber’s abduction.” Because apparently it’s not self-evident that one would be horrified by the abduction of one’s niece.

No release date yet on the drama, but I would expect this is being prepped for NBC’s fall lineup. Given how their February went, NBC is going to need to bring out the big guns for the 2013-2014 TV season.

Via: Deadline