Riley Smith (Nashville, True Detective) is set as the male lead in Frequency, the CW’s drama pilot based on Toby Emmerich’s sci-fi thriller. Smith will play Frank Sullivan, the character played by Dennis Quaid in the 2000 movie.

The TV series, written by Supernatural showrunner Jeremy Carver, centers on Raimy, a female police detective in 2016 who discovers that she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father, Frank Sullivan (Smith), also a detective, who died in 1996.

Seen in 1996, Frank Sullivan has been undercover for two years. The strain of the assignment effectively destroyed his marriage and separated him from his little girl, Raimy, but he gets a new chance at building a relationship with her when she begins communicating with him from 20 years in the future. The two forge a new relationship while working together on an unresolved murder case, but unintended consequences of the ‘butterfly effect’ wreak havoc in the present day.

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Emmerich’s feature took place in New York in 1999 and starred Jim Caviezel as homicide detective John Sullivan who strangely makes contact with his late father Frank Sullivan (Quaid) exactly 30 years in the past on the day before his death.

The CW’s Frequency, from WBTV and Lin Pictures, is executive produced by Carve, Emmerich, John Rickard, and Lin Pictures’ Dan Lin and Jennifer Gwartz.

This marks True Blood alum Smith’s return to the CW and WBTV where he recurred on the drama series The Messengers. Smith, who is coming off a major recurring role on ABC’s Nashville, is repped by Sanders.Armstrong.Caserta Management and Gersh.