TNT has announced that Anne Heche and Judd Hisrch have joined the cast of SILENT WITNESS, the telefilm based on the novel of Richard North Patterson.
Anne Heche (Hung), Judd Hirsch (Damages), William Devane (24), Titus Welliver (The Good Wife, Lost) and Suleka Mathew (HawthoRNe) have joined the all-star lineup for TNT’s upcoming slate of original movies premiering as part of The TNT Mystery Movie Night showcase this fall.
Primetime Emmy® nominee and Daytime Emmy winner Heche and Emmy winner and Oscar® nominee Hirsch have joined the cast of Silent Witness, based on the book by Richard North Patterson. The movie stars Dermot Mulroney (Zodiak, Copycat) as prominent defense attorney Tony Lord, who returns to his hometown to defend the teacher, played by Michael Cudlitz (TNT’s Southland). Tony’s involvement re-opens the heartache from his own high school days, when he was a student falsely accused of murdering his first love. Heche will play Sue Robb, the wife of the accused, while Hirsch will play Tony’s longtime friend Saul Rubin, who helps him on the case.
Silent Witness is set to premiere Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). Lizzie Friedman and Greg Little, the team behind One Lucky Elephant, Whiz Kids and Sex and Death 101, serve as executive producers along with Howard Braunstein (The Informant!). Peter Markle (Bat*21, Flight 93) is set to direct from a script by Thomas Michael Donnelly (Our Fathers).
Emmy nominee Devane, Welliver and Mathew will join Catherine Bell (JAG, Army Wives) in Good Morning, Killer, which is being adapted by April Smith from her own novel. Devane will play Everett Morgan “Poppy” Gray, the grandfather of Bell’s FBI Special Agent Ana Gray, an undercover operative tracking down a serial kidnapper. Welliver will play FBI Special Agent Mike Donato, Ana Gray’s FBI partner. And Mathew will play FBI Special Agent Barbara Sullivan, Ana’s best friend at the bureau. Cole Hauser (Chase, K-Ville) co-stars in Good Morning, Killer as Detective Andrew Berringer.
Good Morning, Killer is slated to premiere Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). In addition to writing the screenplay, Smith is set executive-produce Good Morning, Killer with Frank von Zerneck (We Were the Mulvaneys, Miracle on Ice). Maggie Greenwald (Songcatcher, The Ballad of Little Jo) will direct.
Out of all of these names, it is Hirsch that excites me the most. I remember him from TAXI, but came to really sing his praises from his work on NUMB3RS. He may have won his only Emmy for TAXI, but he deserved at least one for NUMB3RS. TNT seems to be doing a good job of mixing names with strong character actors for the Mystery Movie Night series.
