Michael Peña Joins ‘Gracepoint’, Ruben Santiago-Hudson Cast In ‘Public Morals’

Michael Peña (Gangster Squad) is set to co-star in Fox’s event series Gracepoint, a remake of the UK’s Broadchurch. The project, from Shine America and Kudos, centers on Detective Emmett Carver (David Tennant), the lead male investigator on the case of a shocking murder of 11-year-old Danny that puts a small town under scrutiny. Peña, repped by repped by CAA, Management 360 and Rick Genow, will play Danny’s father Mark Lasseter, a well-liked local plumber and family man. Like anyone else, Mark is left devastated by the murder, but as his wife, Beth (Virginia Kull), suspects, he may be hiding something about that fatal evening. Peña, currently seen in American Hustle, is wrapping Sony’s Fury opposite Brad Pitt and next stars in Chavez as Cesar Chavez.

Low Winter Sun‘s Ruben Santiago-Hudson has lined up a new TV gig, a co-starring role opposite Ed Burns in his TNT pilot Public Morals, executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Written, executive produced, to be directed by and starring Burns, Public Morals is set in 1967 in New York City’s Public Morals Division, where cops walk the line between morality and criminality as the temptations that come from dealing with all kinds of vice can get the better of them. It centers on cop Terry Muldoon (Burns), who knows the line between the good guys and bad guys is thin, and he is determined to raise his sons to be honest and hardworking as he deals with the dark underbelly of the vice world. Santiago-Hudson, repped by repped by Gersh and Vince Cirrincione, will play Lt. King, a womanizing badass, beloved and revered by the department, who has just as much drama outside of the workplace as there is inside the workplace.