EXCLUSIVE: Ernie Hudson has been cast as the lead alongside Raymond Lee in the hour-long NBC pilot Quantum Leap, a reboot of the beloved 1990s sci-fi drama.
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The Complete Guide to Pilot and Series Orders
Written and executive produced by Steven Lilien and Brian Winbrandt, and executive produced by Martin Gero, along with /EP/EP creator Don Bellisario and EP/co-narrator Deborah Pratt, the next series is set in the present. It has been 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) entered the Quantum Leap accelerator and disappeared. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.
Lee stars as Dr. Ben Song, a world-famous physicist working on a time travel project known as “Quantum Leap”, who gets stuck in the late 1980s due to amnesia after using technology.
Hudson plays Herbert “Magic” Williams, a Vietnam veteran and head of the time travel project at Quantum Leap. Using a bit of politicking and his military know-how to keep the Pentagon at bay, Magic buys the team time to rescue Ben, but waits for answers when he returns.
The pilot is being produced by Universal Television, a division of the Universal Studio Group, while Lilien and executive director Wynbrandt are producing I Have an Idea! Entertainment, Bellisario for his Belisarius Productions and Gero through his Quinn’s House Productions.
Hudson recently reprized his signature character Winston Zeddemore in Jason Reitman’s new film Ghostbusters: Afterlife and directed Bobby Farrelly’s Champions with Woody Harrelson. He is executive producing and starring on BET’s Family Business and will later be seen in the upcoming third season of Showtime’s City on a Hill and Katherine Hardwicke’s The Prisoner’s Daughter with Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale.
It is represented by APA and Zero Gravity Management.