David James Elliott will play an astrophysicist

David James Elliott will take the lead in "Impact," an effects-heavy four-hour miniseries.

The Hollywood Reporter story on Elliott's casting doesn't list a network home for the $13 million project, which is written by Michael Vickerman ("Superfire") and will be produced through Muse Entertainment, Jaffe/Braunstein Entertainment and Tandem Communications.

The trade says that "Impact" focuses on the aftermath of meteor shower that leaves the piece of a dwarf star stuck in the moon. As a result, a bunch of weird stuff starts happening on Earth, including "cell phone service interruption, exaggerated tides and the occurrence of sporadic weightlessness." None of that actually sounds so bad, but we assume things get worse.

Elliott will play an astrophysicist who joins forces with a female astronomer to discover that the moon may be heading on a collision course with Earth. Ah. That sounds bad.

"Impact" will begin shooting later this month.

Still best known for his starring turn on "JAG," Elliott followed up that long-running CBS drama with a role in the network's "Close to Home." His other TV credits include stints on "Melrose Place," "Knots Landing" and "Street Legal."