Dennis Haysbert has booked a co-starring role in the CBS drama pilot Backstrom, from writer Hart Hanson, based on the Swedish book series that centers on Everett Backstrom, an overweight, hot-tempered detective who tries, and fails, to change his self-destructive behavior.

Haysbert will play John Almond, a detective working with Backstrom.

Haysbert, most recently seen on the big screen in Sheldon Candis’ LUV, will next appear in a thriller titled Wards Island, alongside Ernie Hudson and Bill Duke, which centers on a viral outbreak in New York City that turns the infected into werewolves; and also he’s replaced the late Michael Clarke Duncan in the follow-up film to the 2005 Robert Rodriguez-directed hit, Sin City, based on the comic by Frank Miller, titled Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.