Life On American Mars

The US remake of Life On Mars is likely to be picked up for the 08/09 TV season -- after a Pilot was filmed by ABC last summer, but the project stalled because of the writers' strike. That Pilot was created by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal), but ABC are now courting Josh Appelbaum, Andrew Nemec and Scott Rosenberg (the team behind mystery drama October Road) to become Mars' showrunners...

It's assumed that Kelley will now leave the project, but he still owns the rights to the US adaptation, so his approval is required for ABC to move ahead...

The US series will once again see a modern-day cop sent back in time to the 1970s. Interestingly, the two leads won't be played by Americans, but Irishmen: Jason O'Mara as Sam Tyler and Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as Gene Hunt. Annie Cartwright will be played by Rachelle LeFevre and Stephanie Chaves-Jacobssen (Kendra Shaw in Battlestar Galactica) will play Sam's modern-day lover Maya.