Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: British actor Tom Weston-Jones (MI5) has landed the lead in Copper, BBC America’s first original scripted series. Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne Identity) and Tessa Thompson (For Colored Girls) will co-star in the drama co-created by Tom Fontana and Will Rokos, joining previously cast Anastasia Griffith. It centers on a young Irish cop (Weston-Jones) operating in the immigrant communities of 19th century New York. In her first series regular role, Potente, repped by Gersh and Thruline, will play the cunning and cutthroat Eva who runs a brothel and has a layered relationship with the cop. Thompson, repped by Greene & Assoc., will play Sara, a doctor’s wife whose brothers were lynched by a group of Irish during riots and will do what she has to do to protect her own. Copper, from Canadian-based Cineflix Studios, is executive produced by Fontana, Rokos, Barry Levinson and Christina Wayne. Weston-Jones recently wrapped the Tandem/Scott Free $44 million eight-hour miniseries World Without End.

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