Academy Award Nominee Demian Bichir Signs on for FX Pilot THE BRIDGE

Related: THE BRIDGE, FX

Academy Award(R) nominee Demián Bichir has reached an agreement to play the male lead in the FX drama series pilot, The Bridge, which begins production next month.

Based on an international hit series, the pilot for The Bridge was adapted for American television by Meredith Stiehm (Homeland) and Elwood Reid (Hawaii Five-0). Adapted from the Scandinavian series i Bron, The Bridge centers on two detectives from the United States and Mexico who must work together to hunt down a serial killer operating on both sides of the American-Mexican border. The Bridge is executive produced by Stiehm and Reid, alongside Carolyn Bernstein, Lars Blomgren and Jane Featherstone. The Bridge is a co-production of Shine America and FX Productions. Gerardo Naranjo will direct the pilot episode.

"We're huge fans of Demián Bichir's work and are thrilled he is taking on the lead role in The Bridge," said John Landgraf, President and General Manager, FX Networks. "He instantly raises the level of authenticity to the story and this is a true casting coup. To have the biggest movie star in Mexico choose his return to television for this project speaks volumes about the quality of the writing by Meredith Stiehm and Elwood Reid."

Stiehm and Reid added, "Getting an actor of Demián's stature for The Bridge is truly a dream come true. Demián's on-screen intensity and deep understanding of Mexico are huge assets to the show. We literally wrote the pilot with him in mind."

In The Bridge, Bichir will play "Marco Ruiz," a homicide investigator for the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. A family man, Marco is one of the last good men in a corrupt and apathetic police force that is outgunned by the powerful drug cartels. He's sharp, charming, and observant and painfully aware that his city is in a state of chaos. When a body is dumped on the bridge that spans the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez border, Ruiz is forced to work with his American counterpart, "Detective Sonya North," (Diane Kruger) to try to solve the crime.

Bichir is a Mexican-born actor best known for his work in the award-winning film, A Better Life, for which he received an Academy Award nomination in 2012. He completed production on his starring roles in the feature films Machete Kills for Robert Rodriguez and The Heat for Paul Fieg, and he recently signed on to star in Richard Shepard's feature Dom Hemingway opposite Jude Law. Bichir's other work includes roles in the hit Showtime series, Weeds, Oliver Stone's 2012 film Savages and his portrayal of Fidel Castro in Che.