Aussie boys take US leads

More casting news in the US provides good news for Aussie actors. Former Home & Away actor Christopher Egan is to play the lead in an NBC pilot based on the story of King David. And Simon Baker is heading back to CBS.

Pitched as a “contemporary soap”, Kings will revolve around David (Egan), a warrior who is chosen to join a royal court after saving the life of the king’s son.

Christopher Egan played ‘Nick Smith’ in Home and Away and has since appeared in Empire (pictured), Everwood, Vanished, and Resident Evil: Extinction. He also has a role in Ryan Murphy’s Pretty / Handsome in which a married father of two tells his wife and teenage sons that he is transsexual. That stars Joseph Fiennes, Carrie-Ann Moss, Blythe Danner and Robert Wagner. Murphy created Nip / Tuck.

Meanwhile former Guardian star Simon Baker (previously known as Simon Baker-Denny in E Street!) will take the lead in The Mentalist in a Warner Bros. TV-produced project. He will play a man who uses his keen sense of observation to solve crimes (sounds like Psych!).

And finally, Warner Bros will also produce Captain Cook’s Extraordinary Atlas described as “Harry Potte meets Pan’s Labyrinth. It centers on a young girl who finds a magical atlas that reveals a secret world underneath our world. No word on casting yet.

Sources: Hollywood Reporter, Variety