USA Picks up Drama Pilot 'Shooter' Starring Ryan Phillippe

Ryan Phillippe

USA Network has announced a pilot pick-up for the hour-long scripted drama Shooter and has locked in Ryan Phillippe (Secrets and Lies, One Life to Live) to star.

Shooter is based on the best-selling Bob Lee Swagger novel by Stephen Hunter, "Point of Impact," and the 2007 Paramount film starring Mark Wahlberg.

The co-production with Paramount Television and Universal Cable Productions comes from executive producers Wahlberg of Closest to the Hole Productions; Stephen Levinson of Leverage Entertainment; and Lorenzo di Bonaventura. John Hlavin (The Shield) wrote the pilot and will also executive produce. Simon Cellan Jones is set to direct the pilot.

Phillippe is a producer on the project and will star as Bob Lee Swagger, an off-the-grid former Marine sniper who is coaxed into action to thwart the killing of the President. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, he must call upon all the skills he acquired as a decorated Marine sharpshooter to avoid capture while hunting down and exposing the traitors who set him up.

Shooter is an action series whose central elements are the ingenuity and courage of a U.S. veteran and the military training and background that sustain him as he fights a sophisticated conspiracy.

Ryan Phillippe (Billy), Mark Brettschneider (Jason) and Yasmine
Bleeth (LeeAnn) at Andrew and Cassie's wedding reception
on One Life to Live in January 1993.

Phillippe began his career as gay teen Billy Douglas on ABC soap opera One Life to Live.

Phillippe most recently appeared on television in Secrets and Lies where he starred opposite Juliette Lewis. Previously, he was seen on Damages playing Channing McClaren in the acclaimed drama’s final season. Most recently, Phillippe co-wrote, produced and starred in Catch Hell, which marks his directorial debut. The story follows an actor abducted while on location and is inspired by true events. Recent film credits include his role opposite Matthew McConaughey and Marisa Tomei in The Lincoln Lawyer, Steven Silver’s The Bang Bang Club, Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Breach starring opposite Chris Cooper.

Since the film, White Squall with director Ridley Scott, Phillippe has worked with exceptional actors and award winning directors. Additional film credits include Robert Altman’s Oscar nominated film Godsford Park, Igby Goes Down, Antitrust co-starring Tim Robbins, Company Man with Sigourney Weaver, The Way of the Gun, The I Inside, and the Academy Award winning film Crash directed by Paul Haggis.

Phillippe can also be seen in, Paramount’s war-drama, Stop-Loss, alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum, MacGruber with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig and box office smash hits; I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cruel Intentions and 54 with Mike Myers. P

In addition to Shooter, USA Network recently announced pilot pick-ups for Brooklyn Animal Control, a co-production between Universal Cable Productions and IDW Entertainment, the pilot is written and executive produced by JT Petty (Splinter Cell); and Poor Richard's Almanack, a co-production between Legendary Television and Universal Cable Productions, the project is from executive producer Jim Danger Gray (Orange is the New Black) and consulting producer Miguel Sapochnik (Game of Thrones).