A&E Greenlights New Original Scripted Drama 'SUGARLOAF' (Working Title) Starring Matt Passmore, Kiele Sanchez And Carlos Gomez

A&E has greenlit the new original scripted series "Sugarloaf" (working title) starring Australian actor Matt Passmore ("McLeod's Daughters," "Underbelly"), Kiele Sanchez ("Lost," "Samantha Who?") and Carlos Gomez ("Shark," "Sleeper Cell"). The series from Fox Television Studios will begin production on the 13-episode order in Miami this winter for a summer 2010 premiere.

In "Sugarloaf," Passmore stars as Jim Longworth, an attractive, brilliant, yet hard to get along with homicide detective from Chicago who after being wrongfully accused of sleeping with his former Captain's wife is forced into exile. Longworth relocates to Sugarloaf, a sleepy small resort town in the middle of nowhere on the Gulf Coast of Florida where the sunshine and golf are plentiful and crime is seemingly at a minimum. Yet life in Sugarloaf is not as beautiful as it may seem.

In the pilot episode, the easy life quickly falls by the wayside when a decapitated, unidentifiable woman is found in a creek, begrudgingly dragging Longworth off the golf course in pursuit of her killer. Complicating matters more is his relationship with Callie (Sanchez), a quick-witted, beautiful med student with a 12 year-old son and a husband in prison. With a Titleist sitting on the fourteenth fairway waiting for him to break eighty for the first time in his life, Longworth needles, cajoles, and harangues everyone in his path, including his golf partner and department medical examiner Carlos (Gómez), as he puzzles out the facts surrounding the mysterious killing to try and identify the victim and bring her killer to justice.

"Matt Passmore brings a fresh face and a vibrant presence to the American television landscape in this series," said Tana Nugent Jamieson, Senior Vice President, Drama Programming, A&E Network. "Sugarloaf is an exciting character driven series that marries the gritty style of a police procedural with the blue-sky backdrop of rural Florida. It's pure entertainment that will complement the network's current line-up of hit Real-Life series and off-net dramas."

"Sugarloaf" is produced by Fox Television Studios for A&E Network. The series will be executive produced by Clifton Campbell ("White Collar," "The Profiler," "21 Jump Street") and Gary Randall ("Saving Grace") for Grand Productions, Inc. The pilot was written by Clifton Campbell.