We’ll never be able to comprehend just how he finds the time, but every week it sounds like we’re reading about another J.J Abrams project, so it’s very easy to lose track of them all. One of his TV projects — which formerly went by the title of “Inhuman,” but is now going simply by “Human” – is busy casting its pilot for Fox at the moment, and it looks like Karl Urban will be joining the already-cast Michael Ealy as one of the leads.
The show, which Abrams has created with “Fringe” exec producer J.H. Wyman, is a buddy cop drama set in near-future Los Angeles where all LAPD officers are partnered with an android. Urban, who recently starred as a badass law enforcer in “Dredd” and will reprise his role as Bones in Abrams’ “Star Trek Into Darkness,” will play the human cop John Kennex, while Ealy will play his android partner Dorian.
Also starring in the pilot are Lili Taylor as the police captain, Mackenzie Crook, Michael Irby, while Minka Kelly is another new addition to the cast, as the morally true cop Valerie Stahl. Brad Anderson, who directed “The Machinist” and the new Halle Berry thriller “The Call” will helm the pilot from Wyman’s script. It’s a high-concept idea but potentially a pretty fun one, and with Abrams’ involvement and smart casting like this we see a lot of potential in the project. [Deadline/THR]