Jason Isaacs has cropped up on more than one TV series before, including a starring stint opposite Jason Clark on US drama Brotherhood a couple of years ago. Now he’s looking to crack the networks across the pond, signing on to star in the pilot REM for NBC.
Despite the title, he won’t be playing one of the band – he’s actually taking on the role of a detective whose life is sent spinning off into two parallel realities after an accident. As he comes to terms with his strange new situation, he struggles to hang on to his job and family.
As of right now, the series is just one pilot that will be vying against many, but it does have a fairly solid pedigree, with Kyle Killen (who wrote the Black List script that became The Beaver) as its creator and former 24 showrunner Howard Gordon on board to shepherd it should REM make it to the air.
And Isaacs is no doubt crossing his fingers that it has better luck than both the last pilot he was featured in – legal drama Pleading Guilty – and Lone Star, the Texas con man drama that Killen created for the Fox network last autumn that arrived to bad ratings and a quick cancellation. Which was a shame, as it showed a lot of promise…