Tucci, McCarthy also cast in pilots

LOS ANGELES -- Even if "Arrested Development" doesn't find a second life on Showtime or elsewhere, Tony Hale may not lack for work next season.

Hale is set to co-star with Andy Richter in the NBC pilot "Andy Barker, P.I.," in which Richter plays an accountant-turned-private eye. His name is one of several familiar ones in the latest pilot castings; others include "Big Night" co-directors Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott in projects at CBS and ABC, Marla Sokoloff and Josh Cooke in an ABC comedy and Andrew McCarthy in the CBS drama "The Way."

For Hale, "Andy Barker" is in the proverbial second position to "Arrested Development," Variety reports. Should "Arrested" find life after FOX -- Showtime is considered the prime contender to pick up the show -- Hale would reprise his role as Buster Bluth, and the NBC project would be recast.

Tucci, soon to be seen in "Lucky Number Slevin" and "The Devil Wears Prada," has signed on to star in a CBS drama about brain surgeons from writer Peter Ocko. It's the second go-round for the pilot, which was called "3 Lbs." last development season; in that version, Dylan McDermott played Tucci's character, a gifted but unpredictable doctor.

It will be the first TV work for Tucci since the short-lived TNT show "Bull" in 2000. He also starred on "Murder One" in the mid-'90s.

Tucci's long-time buddy Scott, meanwhile, has joined the cast of ABC's "Six Degrees," a drama about the intersecting lives of six New Yorkers. He'll appear opposite his frequent co-star Hope Davis ("The Secret Lives of Dentists," "Duma") in the project.

"The Way" is about a powerful New England family that dabbles in witchcraft to help maintain its status. McCarthy, who's appeared in several episodes of NBC's "E-Ring" this season, will star opposite Julia Ormond. He also starred in ABC's "Kingdom Hospital" in 2004.

Finally, Sokoloff ("The Practice") and Cooke ("Committed") will play about-to-be-newlyweds in ABC's "A Day in the Life," a comedy about the couple's wedding day that's told from various points of view. Their casting may be an ominous sign for their current shows -- Cooke stars on NBC's "Four Kings," and Sokoloff is a regular on The WB's "Modern Men," which debuts later this week.