I don’t know a whole lot of men who would mind being stalked by Mena Suvari, but Lifetime has cast her in just such a role. Suvari is attached to the backdoor pilot Stalkers as a woman obsessed with her ex-lover who takes her unrequited love to extremes.
Stalkers is based on the book Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor who Stalks the Stalkers by Rhonda Saunders. It will be a two-hour TV movie leading into a potential series for the network. The story focuses on Diane Harper, a hot-headed cop with problems in her past, played by Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos) and a put-together district attorney, Julia Whitman, played by Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (Prison Break). The two work together to catch and bring to justice Suvari’s character, and from what it sounds like, more such stalkers in the future.
Suvari, best known for films like American Beauty and American Pie, seems to have been looking for a television role; she joined the NBC comedy project Happy Valley at NBC last season, but that one didn’t move forward in the end. This doesn’t sound like it would be a long-term role for Suvari if I am getting the premise right. She will more likely be the first of a series of stalkers that the two main characters turn the tables on if things go well with the backdoor pilot.
In addition to Suvari, Stalkers has added Henry Simmons of NYPD Blue to play Harper’s partner, Cliff, who doesn’t initially care for her way of doing things. THR says the script is being written by Last Resort writer David Wiener and executive produced by Craig Piligian who is best known for reality shows like Dirty Jobs and American Chopper.
