Jonathan Frakes directed the second and third of TNT's trilogy of Librarian action-mystery-supernatural movies, Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006) and The Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008). Now, TNT has revived the franchise as an upcoming television series titled The Librarians, and Frakes has been tapped to direct several episodes.
"We're in Portland shooting a new show based on the movies that I did with Noah Wyle, Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin and Olympia Dukakis," Frakes told StarTrek.com during a recent conversation. "Dean Devlin shot the two-hour pilot and I'll be directing three of the 10 episodes. It's fabulous to revisit The Librarian. This show has a great vibe. Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane and John Larroquette (who played Maltz in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) are now in it. Noah's character (Flynn Carsen) has passed the torch to these other librarians, mostly because Noah is still doing Falling Skies for TNT.
"Noah is in the two-hour pilot and then he'll be recurring over the season, probably in two other episodes close to the end of the season," Frakes continues. "Bob Newhart is back, too, and his scenes will be filmed in L.A. It's a great group, a lot of the same people that I worked with on Leverage and The Librarian movies. So you know what you're getting."
Frakes and Larroquette aren't the only Star Trek veterans in The Librarians cast. Matt Frewer, who guest starred as Berlinghoff Rasmussen in the TNG episode "A Matter of Time," co-stars as the main villain, Dulaque, immortal leader of an ancient cult.
The Librarians will debut later this year.
