Among the staggering crowd of pilot season, award-winning actress Helen Hunt stands in the spotlight as she makes her return to the television screen.
Hunt, along with Richard Dreyfuss and Stephen Moyer, have all been cast in triple starring roles for a new limited series drama on Fox called Shots Fired, the Hollywood Reporter reports today. The three decorated actors join the lead Sanaa Lathan, who was previously cast in October of last year, on the show.
Shots Fired will revolve entirely around the tangled mess of an aftermath after an African-American police officer shoots and kills a young white teenager in a Tennessee town. Lathan, who has had prior roles in the 2000 movie Love & Basketball and has voiced for popular animated series like Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, has been confirmed to play the lead detective in the story who investigates the case against the officer amid a racially-charged town controversy over the incident.
Hunt, who is but a Tony shy away from capturing the coveted EGOT status (Emmy, Golden Globe or Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), has signed on for one season with Shots Fired. She will take on the role of a fabricated governor of North Carolina named Patricia Eamons, who though has no jurisdiction over Tennessee, of course, will play some to be determined level of importance in the context of the series.
While Hunt in the past has made multiple spotlit stakes in television history, starring on the NBC comedy series Mad About You in 1992 until the the show finally ended in 1999—and snagging an Emmy for her role to boot—and currently dabbling in directing in the Showtime series House of Lies, Life in Pieces, and Revenge, this will be Hunt’s first small-screen appearance in years.
Dreyfuss, who cemented his name forever in the shark-infested Jaws, will take on the role of Arlen Cox, a mogul who made his money in real estate and is now tied into the killing of this Tennessee teenager because of one simple fact—he owns a prison, likely the one that the to-be-cast alleged killer-cop will be incarcerated in.
As for Moyer, whose most recent, prominent role was as vampire Bill Compton in HBO’s True Blood, will play character Officer Breeland, who the Hollywood Reporter describes as “a seasoned veteran in the town’s sheriff department.” Officer Breeland will apparently himself become entangled with the investigation into his fellow cop after the shooting.
Married writer couple Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood are behind the creation of Shots Fired. This will not be their first TV series—together, the two wrote A Different World—nor their first drama script—the duo also crafted the words of Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees, and individually Bythewood produced Beyond the Lights.
The limited series is set to debut at a later date in 2016.