CW STAR ‘GONE BABY GONE’
Fox pilot based on Dot-set novel finds leading man
Dorchester is getting another shout-out in Hollywood, as Fox makes moves with its pilot based on “Gone Baby Gone.” And now, the network has announced the leading man for its TV adaptation: Joseph Morgan.
Morgan, who stars in the CW’s soon-to-end vampire drama “The Originals,” will be playing the character of private detective Patrick Kenzie. The British actor has some big shoes to fill, as the last man to portray the P.I. was Cambridge’s own Casey Affleck. As fans know all too well, Affleck starred in the 2007 movie “Gone Baby Gone,” which also served as his brother Ben’s directorial debut.
Both the movie and the upcoming, untitled TV pilot are inspired by the 1998 novel “Gone Baby Gone,” written by Dorchester-born author Dennis Lehane. The story follows Kenzie and his partner/romantic interest Angela Gennaro, who are hired to locate a little girl who’s gone missing from Dot. As the pair talks to some of the neighborhood’s dodgier characters, they start to put together the pieces of the puzzle, which points to the child having been taken into protection from her degenerate mother.
Robert Levine, co-creator of “Black Sails,” has taken on the script for the impending pilot and Phillip Noyce will be at the helm as director. Levine is also executive producing the project alongside Lehane, who has had several other books, like “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island,” translated to the big screen.
Morgan is wrapping up his five-season run of playing Klaus Mikaelson on “The Originals,” a spinoff of “The Vampire Diaries.” The final season of the show will be starting on April 20, so now Morgan will have ample time to ditch his British accent in favor of a Boston one.