Irish actor Colm Meaney (Intermission, Layer Cake) is in final talks to star opposite fellow Dublin actor Jason O'Mara (Band of Brothers, Men in Trees) in the pilot episode of the American version of the hit BBC series 'Life on Mars', filmed for ABC.
Directed by ‘The West Wing’ executive producer Thomas Schlamme, ‘Life on Mars’ centres on Sam (O’Mara), a detective who finds himself transported back to 1972 to follow a lead that will help him discover who kidnapped his girlfriend in his present day life in LA.
IFTA award-winner Meaney will play Detective Gene Hunt, the coarse, humorous head of the homicide unit in 1972 who clashes with Sam - the character was played in the BBC series by Philip Glenister.
American actor Lenny Clarke, star of TV series ‘Rescue Me’, has also been cast in the pilot, which comes from 20th Century Fox TV, David E. Kelley Productions and Kudos Film & Television. Kelley is executive producing the pilot with Kudos' Stephen Garrett and Jane Featherstone. The pilot goes into production this year for possible broadcast in 2008.
Meaney's new film, Tom Collin’s bi-lingual Irish emigrant drama 'Kings', recently won the 2007 Director’s Finders Series and opens in Irish cinemas on 21 September.
