Photo Flash: First Look - ALCATRAZ Coming to Fox 1/16

ALCATRAZ is premiering on FOX on Monday, January 16, 2012. From executive producer J.J. Abrams (FRINGE, "Lost," "Star Trek," "Super 8" and the upcoming "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol") and writer Elizabeth Sarnoff ("Lost," "Deadwood") the drama is a chilling new series revolving around America's most infamous prison, the one-time home to the nation's worst murderers, rapists, kidnappers, thieves and arsonists.

When San Francisco Police Department DET. REBECCA MADSEN (Sarah Jones) is assigned to a grisly homicide case, a fingerprint leads her to a shocking suspect: JACK SYLVANE (Jeffrey Pierce), an Alcatraz inmate who died over 30 years ago. Given her family history - both her grandfather and surrogate uncle, RAY ARCHER (Robert Forster), were guards at the prison - Madsen's interest is immediately piqued, and once the enigmatic, knows-everything-but-tells-nothing government agent EMERSON HAUSER (Sam Neill) tries to impede her investigation, she's doggedly committed. Madsen turns to Alcatraz expert and comic book enthusiast, DR. DIEGO "DOC" SOTO (Jorge Garcia), to help her piece together the inexplicable sequence of events. The twosome discovers that Sylvane is not only alive, but he's loose on the streets of San Francisco, exacting decades-old revenge and leaving bodies in his wake. And strangely, he hasn't aged a day since 1963 when Alcatraz was ruled by the iron-fisted WARDEN Edwin James (Jonny Coyne) and the sadistic ASSOCIATE WARDEN E.B. TILLER (Jason Butler Harner).

Detective Madsen and Soto must team with Hauser and his technician, LUCY BANERJEE (Parminder Nagra), to stop Sylvane's vengeful killing spree. By delving into Alcatraz history, government cover-ups and Rebecca's own heritage, the team will ultimately discover that Sylvane is only a small part of a much larger, more sinister present-day threat. For while he may be the first, it quickly becomes clear that Sylvane won't be the last to reappear from Alcatraz.

Through the course of the investigation, Madsen and Soto will learn that Hauser has been awaiting the prisoners' return for nearly 50 years. Soto will witness his life's work - the history of Alcatraz - come alive. Madsen will be forced to keep her supportive San Francisco cop fiancé, JIMMY DICKENS (Santiago Cabrera), at arm's length from the highly classified assignment as she sees everything she thought she knew about her family's past shattered, all while fighting to keep the country safe from history's most dangerous criminals.