Heroes alumna Hayden Panettiere has found a new home in Nashville, ABC’s twang-tinged drama pilot.
Described as a soap set against the backdrop of the country music scene, Nashville centers on two singers: one whose star is falling, the other whose star is on the rise. Panettiere will play the latter, teen sensation Juliette Barnes, Deadline reports. She joins the previously cast Jonathan Jackson and Powers Boothe.
In other pilot casting news:
• Aly Michalka (Hellcats) has joined the uplifting Fox comedy Rebounding, which follows a man recovering from the death of his fiancée with help from his pickup basketball league. The actress will play the girlfriend of one of the team’s members.
• Cosby Show vet Phylicia Rashad will play the powerful, cutting and intimidating Chief of Surgery in NBC’s Jekyll & Hyde-eqsue medical drama Do No Harm.
• Newcomer Saxon Sharbino has nabbed the lead role in Fox’s untitled Karyn Usher drama pilot — to be directed by Brett Ratner — playing an orphaned 14-year-old daughter of a CIA agent who becomes a fledgling covert operative herself. She finds a surrogate father/professional mentor in a rogue agent.
Which pilot castings have your interest piqued?
