FX has finally found their pugilistic lead for Lights Out. The drama pilot will star Holt MCallany as Patrick “Lights Out” Leary as a former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to support his family. The plot sounds like Rocky V, but not as silly. It even features the hero as a man who has taken too many blows to the head.
The show will focus on Leary trying to come to terms with not being a fighter and how he’ll support his wife and three daughters. When he is diagnosed with pugilistic dementia, he goes out to make that one last big pay day to keep his family afloat. Whether doing the thing that will ultimately turn him into a vegetable is the right move could possibly serve as interesting story angle, and hopefully they won’t throw that away for a rah-rah moment like in the above mentioned Rocky V.
In addition to that news, Clark Johnson has signed to direct the pilot. Johnson directed the pilots and series finales of The Shield and The Wire, two of the most venerable cable shows of the last decade.
