Lifetime will add Martin Donovan (Homeland) and Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Newsroom) to its dystopian thriller The Lottery.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Donovan will be a series regular and Richardson-Whitfield will have a recurring guest star roll. Donovan will play calculating director of the Fertility Commission, Darius Hayes. His character is willing to do anything to achieve what he thinks is for the greater good. Richardson-Whitfield will be recurring guest star Gabrielle, the United States first lady desperate to conceive a child.
The Lottery is set in the future when women no longer have children and the world’s population could face extinction. One hundred embryos are fertilized and a national lottery is held to pick surrogates. The right to have a family is tainted as the government’s interest and power dominate this personal and basic human element.
The cast also includes Marley Shelton as Dr. Alison Scott, Michael Graziadei (American Horror Story), Louise Lombard (CSI), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Glee), Lesley-Ann Brandt (Spartacus: War of the Damned) and David Alpay (The Vampire Diaries).
Timothy J. Sexton (Children of Men) will write and executive produce along with Dawn Olmstead (Prison Break). The pilot episode, which hails from Grady Girl Productions and Warner Horizon Television, will be directed and executive produced by Danny Cannon (Nikita).