Ioan Gruffudd To Star In CBS Pilot 'Ringer', Duo Closing In On Starz Series 'Magic City'

Fantastic Four alum Ioan Gruffudd is set to star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the CBS drama pilot Ringer. The project centers on troubled young woman Bridget (Gellar) who, while on the run from the mob, hides out by inhabiting the life of her rich twin sister, Siobhan, until she learns that her twin’s life has a bounty on it as well. Gruffudd will play Siobhan’s wealthy, well-traveled and cultured husband Andrew who senses something different about his wife. Also cast in Ringer is Mike Colter as Bridget’s AA sponsor, joining previously cast Nestor Carbonell. Welsh-born Gruffudd, repped by WME and the Collective, is best known for his role as Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four franchise. Colter has done an arc on CBS’ The Good Wife.

British actor Christian Cooke and Steven Strait (Stop-Loss) are in final negotiations for co-starring roles opposite Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Starz’s upcoming 10-episode drama series Magic City. Set in Miami in the late 1950s-early 1960s, Magic City chronicles the collision of mobsters, politicians and entertainers at the first preeminent Miami hotel just as Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba and shuts down Havana as a gambling haven. It centers on Ike (Morgan), a suave Jewish-American man who builds the hotel and along the way makes some strange bedfellows and many powerful enemies. Strait will play Stevie, Ike’s oldest son, a high-living hedonist. Cooke will play Ike’s youngest son, a sweet young man who is attending law school while helping his dad.