Pilot News: Dennis Farina, Jon Ortiz, Shane West, Laura Innes, Ravi Patel, Patti LuPone, David Lyons, Others Get Parts

Hello Folks!

Let's hear it for the latest pilot castings.

- Dennis Farina and Jon Ortiz have joined "Luck", the HBO drama pilot taking a look into the world of horse-racing and the gambling around it through the eyes of a group of characters. At the center is Ace Bernstain, who, after serving a three-year prison sentence, teams with Gus Economou (Farina), his longtime henchman and chauffeur, to develop a cunning plan involving the track. They bring Turo Escalante (Ortiz) on board, who is a successful trainer with sordid reputation. David Milch wrote the pilot, Michael Mann will direct.

- Shane West ("ER") is cast alongside Maggie Q in The CW's "Nikita". The redo of the feature film by Luc Besson, "La Femme Nikita", and the 90s TV series of the same name, revolves around a new Nikita (Q), brought in to track down the original assassin after she goes rogue. West plays the agent in charge of recruitment sent to bring in the rogue killer.

- Another "ER" alumna, Laura Innes, has landed a part in NBC's drama pilot "The Event", which chronicles the battle of Sean (Jason Ritter) against a conspiracy to kill the U.S. president from various points of view. Innes plays a mysterious inmates leader at a secret facility.

- David Lyons, who appeared in "ER"'s final season, is cast as the lead in "The Cape", the NBC drama pilot centering on Vince Faraday (Lyons), former cop framed for a crime. He becomes a masked hero to clear his name and reunite with his son.

- Ravi Patel ("Past Life") has come aboard as the lead in "Nirvana", the FOX comedy pilot about an Indian-American man (Patel) living with his white girlfriend (Rachael Leigh Cook) and butting heads with his conservative immigrant parents.

- Tommy Dewey ("Roommates") and Suzy Nakamura ("10 Things I Hate About You") have been added to "Freshman", alongside Sarah Chalke. The story revolves around the first year of three members of Congress, Cameron (Dewey), Jane (Chalke) and Vince (Ben Lawson), who live together in a row house in Washington, D.C.. Nakamura plays Cameron's chief of staff.

- Malcolm Barrett ("Better Off Ted") has been cast as one of the leads in FOX' comedy pilot "Most Likely to Succeed". It's about a bunch of highschool superstars who now have to face much-less-popular adulthood. Jay Harrington and Andrea Anders are already cast in the project. Barrett will play Oliver, once "most charming" highschooler, who now is terrible and pathetic with the ladies. For Barrett, this role is in second position to "Better Off Ted". But that show isn't expected to last another year.

- Patti LuPone ("Life Goes On") has been added to "Open Books", the CBS comedy pilot about June (Laura Benanti), a book editor at a boutique New York publishing house. LuPone is set to play her tough mother.

- Eloise Mumford ("Crash") has come aboard FOX' drama pilot "Midland", to be directed by Marc Webb. It tells the story of a con artist (Jimmy Wolk) managing two lives with two women in two cities. Mumford plays one of the wives.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter