Christina Ricci has closed a deal to star in ABC’s 1960s-set Pan Am.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news last week that Ricci was in talks to star in the drama, from Sony Pictures TV, which is a nighttime soap revolving around pilots and flight attendants (or stewardesses, as they were known then) at the once-dominant airline.
Jack Orman — an executive producer/writer on ER — wrote the script while Nancy Hult Ganis, who was a Pan Am flight attendant in the ’70s, is among the executive producers. Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing, Mr. Sunshine) is on board to direct. Australian actress Margot Robbie has already been cast as one of Pan Am’s flight attendants, while Michael Mosley (Scrubs) has locked to play one of the pilots.
Ricci has periodically popped up on series television in guest arcs including ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in 2006 and TNT’s Saving Grace in 2009.
Her breakout film role came with the 1990 Cher starrer Mermaids, and she cemented her status as a precociously unconventional actress with her turn as Wednesday Addams in the 1991 film adaptation of TV classic The Addams Family. She went on to earn critical raves for adult roles in such films as Buffalo ‘66, The Ice Storm and The Opposite of Sex.
She will next be seen in the films Bel Ami and Born to Be a Star.
The actress becomes the latest name star to join a broadcast pilot this season. Maria Bello, Amanda Peet and Ethan Hawke have already closed deals, while Minnie Driver and Ashley Judd are in negotiations.
