Ryan Phillippe is retuning to ABC. The actor, who once starred on their anthology series Secrets and Lies back in 2015, has joined David E. Kelley’s drama, The Big Sky. The show was ordered straight-to-series some time back and has also added director Paul McGuigan (Emergence) and Matthew Gross as executive producers.
Phillippe is tapped to play Cody Hoyt, a well-meaning ex-cop turned private investigator in Helena, Montana. Married to but separated from Jenny, his life becomes complicated when he’s asked to help find his son’s missing girlfriend. The series centers on private investigator Cassie Dewell, who partners with former police officer Jenny Hoyt on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway. The pair discovers the girls are not the only ones who have disappeared in the area and must race against time to stop the killer before another is abducted.
Phillippe is the latest performer to join The Big Sky. John Carroll Lynch and Dedee Pfeiffer are also on board with more casting expected to happen soon. Phillippe’s recent credits also include USA’s Shooter and a guest spot on NBC’s Will & Grace, playing himself. He currently is in production on rthe om-com Lady of the Manor, actor Justin Long’s feature directing debut, with Judy Greer and Melanie Lynskey.
As for The Big Sky, it’s a big vote of confidence that ABC is going straight-to-series on the project. It’s rarity that they pull this move and when they do, it’s for a low-cost endeavor. The Big Sky is definitely a sort of event series for them and that has a lot to do with the clout of David E. Kelley and his incredible track record (he most recently won pretty much every major award for the first season of HBO’s Big Little Lies and counts Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Legal, Picket Fences and L.A. Law among his impressive body of work). The Big Sky is ABC’s first official series order for the 2020-21 broadcast season.
