Christian Slater Headed to NBC for New Spy Series

I've never been a big fan of Christian Slater, but when he's collaborating with one of my favorite television masterminds, Jason Smilovic (Karen Sisco, Kidnapped), I'll definitely sit up and take notice. Slater is set to star in a new spy series for NBC which the Hollywood Reporter describes as "The Bourne Identity meets Jekyll & Hyde".  He plays an average suburban dad who comes to learn that he has an alter ego with a penchant for spying. Holding true to their "no pilot" ultimatum, NBC is moving forward with the series based on the idea and script alone.

This wouldn't be the first time Slater has appeared on televiision--he's had guest appearances on both Alias and The West Wing. Smilovic, currently recovering from his noble attempt at saving NBC's irredeemable Bionic Woman, is a master of the hard boiled genre, so the series will assuredly be worth following.

As a side note: The as-of-yet unnamed series sounds vaguely similar to Joss Whedon's new Fox show Dollhouse with Eliza Dushku. Whedon's series will apparently deal with a group of people whose minds are imprinted with different personalities to accomplish various tasks. Afterwards, their memories of what they do are erased.

While not exactly alike, I could easily see both series covering some very similar territory. Still, since we're getting two new shows from both Whedon and Smilovic, I certainly won't be complaining.

[Source Hollywood Reporter via TV Squad]