Two high profile actors have been announced for CBS’ new pilot, Hostages. Recently, United States of Tara’s Toni Collette was signed on to head the pilot, and today the network announced that American Horror Story’s Dylan McDermott will take the lead opposite Collette.
Hostages is executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and, in true Bruckheimer fashion, the pilot will be a high stakes thriller. In Hostages’ case, the pilot will be a high stakes political thriller, involving life in Washington, D.C. and the president of the United States. Jeffrey Nachmanoff is writing and executive producing CBS’ project. Also executive producing is the aforementioned Bruckheimer, as well as Rotem Shamir, Chayim Shari, Jonathan Littman, and Omri Givon. That seems like a ton of executive producers, but several names involved with the pilot actually created the material for Hostages from Israeli-based source material that was eventually scrapped.
Which brings us back to McDermott. In the pilot, the actor will star opposite Collette as an FBI agent. THR is describing his character, Duncan, as an upright agent “at the center” of the conspiracy. Assumedly, he’ll have some interaction with Collette’s Ellen, a surgeon who chose to operate covertly on the president, later finding her family taken hostage (there’s where the title comes in). Assumedly, with two big acting names and Jerry Bruckheimer on board for Hostages, CBS is expecting good things from the pilot.
We’ll let you know if Hostages gets a series order or doesn’t live up to expectations.
