Bassett will play New York's first female police commissioner in the drama "One Police Plaza," which ABC is developing and which will be written by Linda Fairstein and Kenneth L. Solarz.

Danes will play a troubled CIA officer in the Showtime pilot "Homeland," which will focus on an American soldier who becomes a prisoner of war during the Iraq invasion of 2003.

Grammer will headline the political drama "Boss," playing a Chicago mayor hiding a secret mental condition, in a pilot to be directed by Oscar nominee Gus van Sant for the Starz network.

Bassett appeared on Broadway in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, was Oscar-nominated for "What's Love Got to Do With It." A veteran of stage productions of Fences and His Girl Friday, among others, she will next be seen in the film "Jumping the Broom."

Danes, known for films like "William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet" and the series "My So-Called Life," appeared on Broadway in Pygmalion and recently won an Emmy Award for the HBO film "Temple Grandin." Grammer is currently on Broadway in La Cage aux Folles and is known for his multi-award-winning turn as the psychiatrist on "Frasier."