CBS Western 'Comanche Moon' Goes Urban

Zap2It.com | April 18, 2006

Karl Urban, Doom

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'Doom' star cast in 'Lonesome Dove' prequel

LOS ANGELES -- CBS has found its young Woodrow Call, casting Karl Urban ("Doom," "The Lord of the Rings") in its "Lonesome Dove" prequel "Comanche Moon."

Urban has signed on to star opposite Steve Zahn ("Sahara"), who will play Augustus McCrae in the miniseries. Elizabeth Banks ("The 40 Year-Old Virgin"), Ryan Merriman ("Final Destination 3"), Graham Greene ("Into the West") and Wes Studi ("Streets of Laredo") have also joined the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Comanche Moon," based on Larry McMurtry's novel, follows Call and McCrae (played by Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall in the 1989 CBS miniseries) as younger men who enlist with the Texas Rangers in pursuit of several outlaws. One of their targets is the Comanche chief Buffalo Hump, who will be played by Greene. Studi will play an ally of Buffalo Hump.

Merriman will play their cohort Jake Spoon, and Banks will play Maggie Tilton, a prostitute who loves Call.

McMurtry and Diana Ossana, the Oscar-winning screenwriters of "Brokeback Mountain," will adapt McMurtry's novel, which takes place in the years between the events of "Dead Man's Walk" and "Lonesome Dove."

Urban played Eomer in the second and third "Lord of the Rings" movies and starred opposite The Rock in "Doom" last year. His credits also include "The Bourne Supremacy" and a recurring part as Julius Caesar on "Xena: Warrior Princess."

"Comanche Moon" will likely air sometime next season.