Ryan Phillippe, Katrina Law & Aaron Staton To Star In Frankenstein Based Pilot ‘Alive’ For CBS
CBS are taking a new crack at the Frankenstein story with a modern-day twist as they add Ryan Phillippe, Katrina Law & Aaron Staton to the cast for the pilot ‘Alive’.
The drama centres on Mark Escher (Phillippe), a San Francisco police investigator who was presumed dead after an attack and destructive fire at his home. Six months later, he shockingly reappears and is reunited with his wife, Elizabeth (Law). But something has changed. A shadow has fallen across his sunny disposition, and he’s haunted by visions of the case he was working on when he died. He and Elizabeth will seek answers about who shot and abducted him, and what was done to him.
Katrina Law’s Elizabeth Lavenza is a pathologist/medical examiner who is stunned when her husband returns from the dead. Although she’s thrilled to have him back, she knows there’s a secret behind his disappearance, his reappearance and his new personality – and she thinks she knows exactly who’s responsible…
That man she suspects is Aaron Staton’s Victor Frankenstein (really, the name should be a giveaway…) He is a brilliant, if slightly odd and driven scientist, who is working on a secret, cutting-edge project. On the run from an ethics board in China, Victor is back in the U.S., where he works in a lab and is very involved in whatever it is that’s going on with Escher. Just to complicate things further, he is also Elizabeth’s ex-boyfriend.
Ryan Phillippe has spent the last few years starring in the recently cancelled ‘Shooter’, which aired on Netflix in the UK. Prior to that, he was probably best known for his role as Sebastian in the movie ‘Cruel Intentions’. Katrina Law has been busy starring in both ‘The Oath’ for Sony Crackle, and ‘Sacred Lies’ for Facebook Watch. However, she is best known in the UK for her role as Nyssa al Ghul in ‘Arrow’. Aaron Staton most recently starred in ‘Narcos: Mexico’, and ‘Castle Rock’. Previously he has appeared in ‘Ray Donovan’ and ‘Mad Men’, but to gamers, he is probably best known as Cole from Rockstar’s ‘L.A. Noire’.
‘Alive’ is written & exec produced by Jason Tracey, whose previous work includes shows such as ‘Elementary’ and ‘Burn Notice’. Uta Briesewitz (‘Stranger Things’, ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Westworld’) is set to direct and also exec produce. We should stress, this is only a pilot, so may not go to series, but we’ll let you know if and when we hear more.
