Ryan Phillippe is about to put a 21st-century spin on a famous legend. The actor has been chosen to lead the CBS pilot Alive, which is about a cop who comes back from the dead.
The project was originally called Frankenstein and the pilot centers on a San Francisco homicide detective named Mark Escher (Phillippe) who is mysteriously brought back to life after being killed in the line of duty. But as he resumes his old life and he and his wife Elizabeth realize he isn’t the same person he used to be, they zero in on the strange man behind his resurrection: Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Katrina Law (The Oath, CBS’ Training Day) will play Phillippe’s wife Elizabeth while Aaron Staton (Mad Men) will also star as Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The series comes from Jason Tracey and Rob Doherty, the team that brought us CBS’ Elementary.
In further character details, Phillippe’s Escher, a San Francisco police investigator, was presumed dead after an attack and destructive fire at his home. Six months later, he shockingly reappears and is reunited with his wife, Elizabeth (Law). But something has changed. A shadow has fallen across his sunny disposition, and he’s haunted by visions of the case he was working on when he died. He and Elizabeth will seek answers about who shot and abducted him, and what was done to him.
Law’s Elizabeth Lavenza, a pathologist/medical examiner, is stunned when her husband (Phillippe) returns from the dead and though she’s thrilled to have him back, she knows there’s a secret behind his disappearance, his reappearance, and his new personality – and she thinks she knows exactly who’s responsible. Lastly, Staton’s Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant, slightly odd and driven – perhaps obsessed – scientist who is working on a secret, cutting-edge project. On the run from an ethics board in China, Victor is back in the U.S. where he works in a lab and is very involved in whatever it is that’s going on with Escher (Phillippe). He’s also Escher’s wife’s (Law) ex.
Phillippe most recently starred as the lead in USA’s series Shooter, which aired for three seasons. This would mark his second broadcast series following ABC’s anthology Secrets & Lies, whose first installment he starred in. Phillippe has also starred in various feature films such as The Lincoln Lawyer, Stop-Loss, Breach, Flags Of Our Fathers, Cruel Intentions and Crash.
