Lifetime has found its stalker.
The female-skewing cable network has tapped Mena Suvari to co-star in its appropriately titled drama Stalkers, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Based on Rhonda Saunders' book Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers, the two-hour telepic serves as a back-door pilot and revolves around Diane Harper (The Sopranos' Drea De Matteo), the hot-headed cop with a troubled past who teams with a polished district attorney Julia Whitman (Prison Break's Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) to bring a stalker (Suvari) obsessed with her former lover to justice.
STORY: Lifetime Developing Stalker Drama 'Whisper of Fear' (Exclusive)
NYPD Blue's Henry Simmons has also been cast in the drama, from Pilgrim Studios and exec producer Craig Piligian, as Harper's partner Cliff, who initially clashes with Diane and is put off by her defensiveness and unorthodox methods.
Simmons, whose credits also include Shark, Man Up and Common Law, additionally has booked an episode of Fox's Bones, playing Tom, a CEO of Serberus, the world's biggest provider of mercenaries. He'll appear in the ninth episode of the Fox drama's eighth season, tentatively scheduled for late January or early February.
Last Resort's David Wiener will pen the Stalkers script for Lifetime, which previously parlayed The Client List from a telepic to a series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.
In addition to American Beauty, Suvari's credits include the American Pie features, Six Feet Under and a pair of episodes of FX's American Horror Story. This past pilot season, she was attached to co-star in the Hilary Winston comedy Happy Valley, which failed to move forward at NBC.
Suvari is repped by ICM Partners, Alchemy Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman; Simmons is with APA, Principato Young and Del Shaw.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
