ABC's adaptation of Life on Mars is beginning to sound a lot better as it approaches its premiere date.  After casting Michael Imperioli, best known as Christopher Moltisanti on HBO's The Sopranos, the time travel-police procedural has now enlisted Oscar nominated actor Harvey Keitel.

Perhaps best known for his playing gangster Mickey Cohen in Bugsy, in which he obtained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Keitel turned in some impressive performances in films by some of America's leading directors.  And though his fame faded during the 1980s, he re-emerged to stardom with his role as Mr. White in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and as Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe in Pulp Fiction, as George Baines in The Piano and the title character in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant.

On Life on Mars, Harvey Keitel will play Detective Gene Hunt, iron-fisted head of the homicide department who uses whatever means necessary to get criminals off the street, and to keep his detectives in step.  Variety reports that shooting for the series will start in and around New York City on August 5.

Life on Mars, the series about a modern-day cop who wakes up in the 1970s after a car crash, marks Harvey Keitel's first-ever regular TV series role.  His other small screen credits include The Path to 9/11, Fail Safe, The FBI, Down Where the Buffalo Go and Head Above Water.  The 69-year-old actor joins previously announced cast members Jason O'Mara as Detective Sam Tyler, Michael Imperioli as Detective Ray Carling and Jonathan Murphy as Detective Chris Skelton.

Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, the producers of the ABC drama October Road, will serve as executive producers to Life on Mars, which is based on a British series.  The series will be aired on ABC Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT in the fall.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Variety
(Image courtesy of Wire Image)