It's official: Maria Bello set to star in 'Prime Suspect'

Image Credit: Maria BelloNBC has its Det. Jane Tennison. EW has learned that Maria Bello — who appeared on the Peacock's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit last year – will star in the Prime Suspect reboot that's in the works for the fall.

As first reported by EW earlier this month, Bello confirmed that she was talking to NBC about playing the role. Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) is now shepherding the reboot ofthe British police procedural drama from the '90s that starred Mirren. Desperate Housewives producer Alexandra Cunningham will serve as the showrunner.

"Definitely nervous to even think about taking over for Helen Mirren," Bello told EW exclusively. "C'mon! How could anyone compete with her? Didn't she do about 10 of them and win an Emmy every time?  I'm open to things right now. I'm just trying to go with the flow of my life and I've been going back-and-forth to Haiti trying to help out. That has felt good, but I am also wanting to do something spectacular with my life work-wise and that may end up being it."

Prime Suspect was first dusted off last season as a potential midseason replacement for the 2010-11 season, but the project never made it to pilot for a number of reasons, including NBC's inability to find someone to play Tennison.  Bello is one of those veteran actors whose name topped the wish list of every network each development season.