Morris Chestnut, Jennifer Finnigan join ABC pilots

ABC's "V" remake has hired its first alien, while the Shonda Rhimes project "Inside the Box" has added yet another actor to what's becoming a rather large cast.

Morris Chestnut will play one of the lead roles in "V," a remake of the mid-'80s alien-invasion series. He joins Scott Wolf, who earlier this week was cast as an ambitious newscaster who becomes the aliens' mouthpiece.

The show will focus on a female Homeland Security agent who becomes a resistance leader after the "visitors" make their true intentions known. Chestnut, whose credits include "The Game Plan" and "Not Easily Broken," will play her boyfriend -- who, unbeknownst to her, is an alien, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Inside the Box" is about the lives of reporters and producers at a network news bureau in Washington. Finnigan, who starred in "Close to Home" and "Committed," will play the White House press secretary, who's having an affair with one of the network's reporters (Jason George).

The cast also includes Kim Raver, Lloyd Owen, Martin Henderson and Sarah Drew. The show does not, however, have its lead actress, a hard-charging female producer. Rhimes is executive producing the pilot with writer Richard E. Robbins, a former ABC News producer.