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Chris Egan is set as the lead in ABC’s drama pilot Poe. The project, from Warner Bros. TV and Lin Pictures, is a crime procedural following Edgar Allan Poe (Egan), the world’s very first detective, as he uses unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 1840s Boston. The casting stems from Egan’s talent deal with ABC. The actor previously played the lead in NBC’s drama Kings. Also cast in Poe today was The Legend of the Seeker alumna Tabrett Bethell as Poe’s muse.
Jesse Bradford (NBC’s Outlaw) has landed the lead in ABC’s half-hour pilot Other People’s Kids. The multicamera comedy, written by Hunter Covington and directed by Michael Fresco, centers on Adam (Bradford), a 32-year-old guy with no responsibilities who suddenly finds himself with an insta-family when he falls in love with an older woman (Bonnie Sommerville) who has two kids, an ex-husband, and ex-in-laws. Bradford also recurred on NBC’s The West Wing and co-starred in Flags of Our Fathers.
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Is Poe a good pilot or not? I read somewhere where it’s a little bit like Castle set in the 1840s.
okay count me into Poe now…..niccceee!
I think Chris Egan is a bit miscast. He looks too young. Poe looked much older at that age.
Jesse’s great. Hope this is a big hit for him.
Was he on Desparate Housewives?
Different Jesse.
egan is a terrible actor, but also terribly miscast.
I had been wondering what happened to Jesse – he had a moment in his early-20′s where it looked like he was really going to take off with Bring It On and Swimfan and then he kind of disappeared until Flags of our Fathers, and then he disappeared again.
Egan is brilliant.
I know they auditioned plenty of guys for Poe, why did they go with him. He’s pretty but bland.
Love Jesse, hope it does well.
I’m sad for Poe. I anticipated it with such passion but then production moved away from Boston and now they (mis)cast this guy.
Poe had black, longish hair and a completely different face shape.
Plus, this guy is too young. Poe was in his 30s in the 1840s.
What was once a great pilot-to-be has now turned into a CW-cast dramedy where I’ll be watching the lead butcher the American accent. Nice going, ABC!
Egan is a great choice – he was fantastic in the underrated ‘Kings’.
I liked Kings, but thought Egan just butchered his scenes. His speech was labored, I guess because he was trying to cover his accent, but it sucked all the life from his lines.
Read Poe pilot script. About as 1840s Boston as the Downey Sherlock was 1890s London. Will be fascinating to see if it succeeds. Absolutely formulaic and insulting. Makes Castle look like The Wire by comparison.
Chris Egan should only ever be cast as Julian Assange. Or Matt Damon.
I’m hearing good things about the leads. I’ve seen Tabrett Bethell’s work, and she’s going to be worth watching. Time to seriously break out in American TV (besides Legend of the Seeker) and film. Matchless actress; hope all will discover her.
And the TV Networks get whiter and whiter in their casting with every bit of casting news… How about casting tv shows with actors who look like the rest of America?
There are two pilots with black female leads this year, and another pilot with African-American cast members. Shut up.
Sweet. Thank you diversity police.
You’re welcome. In fact ANOTHER black woman has been cast in the Eric Roberts dance pilot according to Nikki. Here’s the part where I could bitch about black males getting the shaft in casting this season BUT I WON’T.
And “hmmmm” blacks pave the way for all minorities in this country so again, shut up.
great so in a hundred years three non-black minorities will be in pilots. awesome.
Not to be that guy, but there is a lot of other color out there besides black. So, um…you shut up, no take backs?
Not to be that guy, but there are a lot of other types of color besides black.
Can you give us the ratio of white actors to non-white actors cast in pilots? If not, shut up!
According to my quick math, it’s the close to the same ratio of white US citizens to non-white US citizens. How is that wrong? If you are unhappy with that ratio, what are you doing about it other than harping on these forms? Were you hoping for a black Edgar Allen Poe?
I don’t really care about the race situation but the fact is there is now separate but equal TV in America. All of the black shows are now od second hand cable and in broadcast and cable it’s sidekicks, criminals and angry black captains all over again.
The nets will come to diversity for one reason, it’s profitable. Until then they will do silly shit like making heroes out of ancient writers.
Nah, Charlie Sheen as Poe. It’s chemistry.
Does it bother anyone that Poe was a poet and writer – not a sleuth? He created the idea of the Privite Eye, but he certainly wasn’t one.
What do dumb Americans know about history, anyway. Of course Edgar Allen Poe was a twentysomething hunk detective. After all Abe Lincoln was a vampire hunter with a black best friend in the 1860s.
No he didn’t, Wilkie Collins did.
By these pictures, it looks like they should switch the casting choices.
Glad to see that Tabrett Bethell may be on my TV screen every week; she’s definitely one to watch. However, I can’t fathom why they’re setting Poe in Boston. He left there when he was a toddler. In the 1840s, he was in Baltimore and Philadelphia, either of which would make a great setting for such a series. (Yeah, yeah, I know – historical nitpicking.)
It’s not nitpicking, Nicole – it’s an excellent point. But of course the network execs think it doesn’t matter, and they probably have some inane reason of their own why Boston is better, and as always, they ignore the fact that actual quality can actually find a way to win out in the end, choosing instead to insult their audience – our audience – us – in every way imaginable. Sad.