Bobby Cannavale has signed on to star as the lead of the drama pilot, M.O.N.Y. for NBC and Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson; Spike Lee is directing.

The show centers on a socially conscious New York public advocate (Cannavale) who is thrust into the position of becoming interim mayor and struggles to balance his moral center with the hardball realities of New York politics, notes The Hollywood Reporter.

In other TV news, Rachelle Lefevre will play the female lead in the David E. Kelley drama pilot, Life on Mars for ABC; it's based on the BBC series and centers on a detective who finds himself transported back to 1972 after his girlfriend has been kidnapped. Lefevre will play the lone female detective in the department in 1972 who forges a mystic bond with the mysterious detective and teams with him to track a serial killer.

Also, Bryan Cranston has signed on for the lead in AMC's drama pilot, Breaking Bad. It centers on a high-school chemistry teacher (Cranston) who, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, uses his skills to launch a meth lab in order to make money quickly and provide for his wife and handicapped son.

Rebecca Mader is set to star in the ABC drama pilot, Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; she'll co-star with Jordana Brewster in the show that revolves around John and Jane (Brewster) Smith, a married couple who are spies. Madert will play Jane's former assistant who is her top associate at the covert ops agency.

Finally, Michael Michele has been cast in the ABC drama pilot, Judy's Got a Gun. The show's about Judy Lemen, a rookie female detective who struggles to balance her personal life as a single mother with her job investigating suburban crimes; Michele will play a focused, no-nonsense detective who becomes friends with Lemen. Steve Sandvoss has also joined the cast as a germ-phobic detective.

In other pilot casting news, Dania Ramirez has been added to the cast of NBC's drama, Fort Pit from Denis Leary's Apostle. The show is set at one of the worst NYPD police precincts in Brooklyn; Ramirez will play a hard-boiled young cop, once a top narc but who was caught using the drugs she confiscated.