The star of new crime procedural pilot The Mentalist will be Simon Baker. He is to play Patrick Jane, a Derren Brown-esqe private detective who solves crimes with his uncanny abilities of human perception. Robin Tunney was also cast to play the Skully to his Mulder. Here is the description of her character…
Tunney will play career-focused lead agent Teresa Lisbon. The actress, who starred on the first season of Fox’s “Prison Break,” will next be seen in Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain.” She is repped by Gersh, Hyler Management and attorney David Weber.
Baker notably played the arrogant writer in The Devil Wears Prada but is most likely remembered by folks who read this site as the main character in George A. Romero’s Land Of The Dead. Tunney was recently on the FOX hit Prison Break and played the bald girl in Empire Records.
If The Mentalist is picked up and a Screen Actors Guild strike doesn’t cripple production in the summer, look forward to the show hitting the airwaves on CBS this fall.
• Death Defying Acts opened in Korea last weekend and came in eighth place on 280 screens. It finished behind American flicks, The Other Boleyn Girl, Dan In Real Life and Step Up 2: Even Steppier (seriously).
• Meanwhile, we are getting reports that after releases in Korea and Australia, pirated copies of Acts are popping up on the internet. Time will tell if the leaks affect an American release of the film.