USA Network
Additionally, Simon Cellan Jones ('Boardwalk Empire') has come onboard to direct the pilot.
USA Network has found the stars of its next drama pilot.
Masters of Sex alum Colin Woodell, Glee grad Erinn Westbrook, Ginny Gardner (Project Almanac) and David Corenswet (Public Affairs) will headline the cabler's period drama The Tap, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The Tap is set at Yale University circa 1969, during the height of America's cultural and political revolution – a time when the campus is being upended by antiwar protests, race riots and the arrival of the first female students. In the midst of this, three students struggle to find their true identities.
Woodell will play Jay Butler, an ambitious and highly intelligent student looking to secure his future by joining Skull and Bones. Although he doesn’t have the pedigree of his classmates, he will do whatever it takes to escape his past. Woodell will next be seen in ABC's Kiefer Sutherland drama Designated Survivor and the upcoming indie Last Days of Summer. He is repped by Innovative Artists.
Westbrook will portray Gloria Murphy, one of Yale's first female students and one of the few black students in her class. She was raised in the impoverished city of New Haven and, if she had it her way, she’d skip undergrad and go straight to law school so she could fight to change the system from within. Westbrook, whose other credits include Awkward and Jane the Virgin, is repped by APA, Treadwell Entertainment Group and Myman Greenspan.
Gardner is set as Michelle Cuttriss who is also apart of Yale's inaugural female class. Disgusted and unnerved by the distressing reception she receives on campus; she decides to let everyone know just how unprepared Yale is for her. Her roles include the indies Project Almanac and Goat. She is repped by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Sloan Offer.
Corenswet rounds out the cast as Kirk Lewis, a blue-blooded Skull and Bones legacy whose transformation from WASP prince to hippie warrior will raise more than a few eyebrows back home. The actor, who currently stars in Public Affairs, is repped by ICM Partners, Untitled Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman.
Additionally, Simon Cellan Jones (Boardwalk Empire, Treme) has come onboard to direct the pilot after having recently directed an episode of the NBCUniversal cabler's twice-delayed Shooter remake. Rob Reiner was originally attached to helm when The Tap was first put into development at USA in April 2015.
Reiner is still on board to exec produce along with Andrew Lenchewski (Royal Pains), Alan Greisman of Reiner/Greisman and Charlie Ebersol (The Profit). Lenchewski co-wrote the pilot with Aaron Tracy (Law & Order: SVU), who will serve as a co-executive producer. The drama hails from Universal Cable Productions.
The Tap marks the second pilot order for USA Network as part of its 2016-17 development season. Damnation, also is a period drama, centers on the American heartland during the 1930s.
Pilot Season USA Network
