Photo : Rachel Murray ( Getty Images for Vanity Fair )

Maybe it’s the bald head, maybe it’s the tough guy demeanor, or maybe it’s because he won an Emmy for The Shield, but TV studios really like to cast Michael Chiklis as a grizzled cop who may or may not occasionally push things to far. According to Deadline, he’s just been cast as the male lead in a CBS drama pilot that’s literally just called Murder, and he’ll be playing a veteran NYPD detective who gets partnered up with an “outspoken rookie” played by Teynoah Parris who disrupts his “usual style.”


The pilot is based on a British miniseries, and it “explores crime through the unique and often-conflicting perspectives of cops and killers, witnesses and victims, friends and family.” It’s also filmed like a true-crime documentary, following the two detectives as they investigate a murder.