Angela Bassett signs on to ABC cop drama project

Actress Angela Bassett has signed on to star in a cop drama for ABC.

Bassett is set to star on “One Police Plaza,” an hour-long in development from “Criminal Minds”/ “Grey’s Anatomy” exec producer Mark Gordon.

Should the drama go forward, Bassett would star as the first-ever female New York police commissioner. Project had already been set up at the Alphabet net (Daily Variety, Nov. 2), but the deal with Bassett has just now been finalized.

Crime novelist Linda Fairstein and Kenneth Solarz (“CSI: NY”) are writing and exec producing the show. Gordon will also exec produce with his production partner Deb Spera.

“One Police Plaza” -- the name of the NYPD’s headquarters, near City Hall -- would rep the first series role for Bassett since the final season of “ER,” where she played chief of emergency medicine Dr. Catherine Banfield.

Bassett will next be seen in the features “The Green Lantern” and “Jumping the Broom.” Her recent film credits include “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns,” “Gospel Hill” and “Notorious.”

Fairstein was formerly the head of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit. And Solarz’s credits also include “Falcone” and “The Handler.”