Rob Lowe is going across the pond for his latest starring role.
The former “West Wing” star will play a high-flying U.S. cop who is appointed Chief Constable of the East Lincolnshire Police Force in the ITV crime drama “Wild Bill,” TheWrap has learned.
The six-episode series is produced by 42 (“Traitors,” “Ironbark,” “Watership Down”) and Anonymous Content (“13 Reasons Why,” “Maniac,” “Mr. Robot”) and ITV Studios label, Shiver. It marks the first time the three have collaborated to produce a drama series for ITV, according to a statement from the U.K. network.
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Along with playing the titular role of Bill Hixon, Lowe will also act as an executive producer on “Wild Bill” alongside Eleanor Moran on behalf of 42, and Tim Carter, managing director of ITV Studios label Shiver. Writers Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble, creator David Griffiths, Kyle Killen, Scott Pennington and Keith Redmon from Anonymous Content also join the team as executive producers.
Having started his career in the 1980s as part of Hollywood’s Brat Pack in movies such as “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “The Outsiders” and “Oxford Blues,” Lowe has embraced TV in recent years starring in hit series including “Parks and Recreation,” “Code Black” and “Brothers and Sisters.” He will soon be seen hosting Fox’s competition series “Mental Samurai,” produced by Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television and A. Smith & Co. Productions.
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“As an actor, ‘Wild Bill’ is a larger than life character who’s outrageously articulate, has nothing to lose and revels in being an American fish out of water,” Lowe said of his latest role. “As a executive producer, I’m excited to work with such talented partners and to come back to work in the UK, which I always love.”
“Wild Bill gives us an chance to write about modern Britain and modern crime through unique eyes. We wrote this for Rob Lowe, for his smart-talking, anarchic, soulful voice,” writers Keeble and Appleton added. “Displacing Rob in Brexit Britain and specifically in Boston, Lincolnshire, allows us to tell stories that are leftfield and unexpected. We wanted to write something that couldn’t take place anywhere else, or at any other time.”
“Wild Bill” is created by David Griffiths (“The Hunted,” “Collateral Damage”), Kyle Killen (“Halo,” “Awake”) and Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble (“Silent Witness,” “Thorne: Sleepyhead & Scaredycat,” “Trial & Retribution”), and will be written by lead writers and show-runners Keeble and Appleton.
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See the full series description courtesy of ITV below:
When high-flying US police chief Bill Hixon lands in Boston, Lincolnshire, with his 14 year-old daughter Kelsey in tow, he’s hoping they can flee their painful recent past. But this unfamiliar, unimpressed community will force Bill to question everything about himself and leave him asking whether it’s Boston that needs Bill, or Bill that needs Boston?
With a first class degree in Criminology, a Masters in Psychopathology and a Doctorate in Statistical Mapping, Bill Hixon is impressively qualified to tackle the county’s crime figures with his graphs, charts, algorithms and a tapestry of digits. Whip-smart, acerbic and unstoppable, Bill is very good at what he does. America’s Top Metropolitan Police Chief three years running is the ideal candidate to make his mark on the East Lincolnshire Force, not least by driving through drastic cuts. From the outset Bill isn’t about making friends. He’s here to get the job done and get the hell out as quick as his spin-class-toned legs will carry him.
But Bill discovers the people of Boston are just as smart-mouthed, cynical and difficult to impress as he is. They don’t suffer fools, authority or algorithms gladly. And the man who’s spent his life keeping the messiness of human intimacy at arm’s length is reluctantly propelled into frontline policing and forced to reconsider his relationship with those closest to him. It’s funny and dangerous in equal measure.
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