Omar Epps to Star in ABC Drama 'The Returned'

3:00 PM PST 3/7/2013 by Lesley Goldberg , Philiana Ng

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Kurtwood Smith and newcomer Landon Gimenez round out the cast of the adaptation of the novel by Jason Mott.

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Omar Epps

Omar Epps has found his follow-up to House.

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The actor, who played Dr. Eric Foreman on the long-running Fox drama starring Hugh Laurie, has been tapped to topline the ABC drama pilot The Returned, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

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From Criminal Minds' Aaron Zelman and based on the Jason Mott novel, The Returned asks what happens when the people you have buried and mourned suddenly appear on your doorstep as if not a day's gone by.

Epps will star as Martin Bellamy, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He's a former cop who joined ICE when he got involved with a case involving the trafficking of children. He's empathetic with a soft spot for kids -- despite not having a family of his own -- and is fascinated by Jacob (newcomer Landon Gimenez), a mysterious boy who popped up from nowhere in the middle of rural China.

Additionally, That '70s Show alum Kurtwood Smith has joined the cast as Harold, Jacob's father, who is rattled by the mysterious reappearance of his son -- who appears radically unchanged despite being dead for 32 years.

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Criminal Minds' Zelman will pen the pilot and executive produce alongside JoAnn Alfano, Jon Liebman, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner; Charles McDougall will direct the ABC Studios/Brillstein Entertainment and Plan B production.

Covert Affairs alum Devin Kelley co-stars as a doctor who teams with Martin after the reappearance of her late mother. Matt Craven, Frances Fisher, Sam Hazeldine, Samaire Armstrong, Nicholas Gonzalez and Mark Hildreth also co-star in the pilot, which now has completed casting ahead of its Atlanta shoot.

Epps (Love & Basketball, ER) is repped by WME, Anonymous Content and Hansen Jacobson; Smith (24) is repped by Progressive, Pop Art and Imperium 7; and Gimenez is repped by Pastorini-Bosby Talent and RSM Management.