Rainn Wilson lands CBS detective pilot

From Deadline.com:

The Office‘s Rainn Wilson has been tapped for the title role in the CBS/20th TV drama pilot Backstrom. Also cast in the project, based on the Swedish book series, is Page Kennedy. Written by Bones creator Hart Hanson, Backstrom centers on Everett Backstrom (Wilson), an overweight, offensive, irascible detective as he tries, and fails, to change his self-destructive behavior. In addition to starring, Wilson will serve as a producer. He joins co-stars Kristoffer Polaha and Dennis Haysbert.

Congratulations, Rainn!

16 comments

  1. “Overweight”? Time to throw down the beets and head to Alfredo’s Pizza with Kevin.

  2. It’s sad, but Rainn Wilson is probably considered ‘overweight’ in Hollywood haha.

  3. It almost feels like The Office really isn’t ending…we might see a lot of our friends back on television soon enough. :)

  4. Well, “The Farm” is officially dead with that :)

    Congrats, and hope it works out.

  5. If we can’t have the Office forever, I’m looking forward to seeing Rainn (and all the others) showing off their talents in new ways.

  6. I remember Rainn on Six Feet Under — such a strange role so different from Dwight. Rainn is an actor who can make reading the phone book interesting. I’m a fan!

    [from tanster: loved his role of Arthur on Six Feet Under!]

  7. Sounds like a great role for him! I wish him all the best! I hope Craig’s school teacher show gets picked up, it sounded fun!

  8. Sounds promising. Whatever happened to Steve Carell’s NBC pilot about the small town post office, which was supposedly based on his actual experience as a postal employee?

  9. @Rob: Definitely Alfredo’s Pizza. Pizza by Alfredo is bad. It’s real bad. It’s like eating a hot circle of garbage.

    I loved him on Six Feet Under as well. Kinda like if the seeds of Dwight being sown. Weird to see him act scenes with Dexter (I watched Six Feet Under after Dexter started).

  10. Love it!

    Sounds like a more modern-day version of something like The Rockford Files – and I still love watching reruns of that every now and then.

    I am a bit disappointed that The Farm isn’t going to happen, though we’ve known about that for a while. Would have been really cool if that had run for at least a season or two. I have to admit that I’ll really miss Dwight’s character (along with all the others as well, of course).

  11. Hopefully it won’t be another generic CBS crime proceedural show with a Brand name like Elementary. But I love Rainn and I love Bones so this should be good.

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