It's a Star Trek reunion for Karl Urban and J.J. Abrams.
Urban -- aka Star Trek's Bones -- is heading to the small screen, landing the starring role in Fox's high-concept cop drama from Abrams and J.H. Wyman, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
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The drama, which is now going by the title Human, is described as an action-packed buddy-cop show set in the near future, when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved humanlike androids.
Urban will take on the leading role of John Kennex, a respected police officer who has shut down emotionally after a tragic mission that claimed the lives of nine of his fellow elite officers and left him critically injured.
Should Human move beyond the pilot stage, the role would mark Urban's first series-regular role on U.S. television, following roles on U.K. dramas Riding High and Amazon High. He joins a cast that includes Common Law's Michael Ealy as Kennex's android partner Dorian; Lili Taylor as the police captain; and co-stars Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Mackenzie Crook and Michael Irby.
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Fringe's Wyman will pen the script and executive produce the Warner Bros. Television and Bad Robot Productions drama alongside Abrams and Bryan Burk, with Kathy Lingg and Reid Shane on board as co-EPs. Brad Anderson will direct and co-exec produce the pilot.
The casting reunites Urban with Abrams, with whom he worked on 2009's Star Trek and its upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness sequel. Urban's credits also include The Bourne Supremacy, Chronicles of Riddick, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and its sequel The Return of the King. He next appears in Riddick, which is due in September. Urban is repped by CAA, Principato-Young and McKuin Frankel.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
