'Battlestar' actor to star in 'Riverworld'

Sci Fi has cast its leads for Riverworld and The Phantom -- the network’s upcoming original movie events that will serve as trials for potential new series.

Battlestar Galatica veteran Tahmoh Penikett and Smallville's supergirl Laura  Vandervoort will star in Riverworld, while Ryan Carnes (”Desperate Housewives”) has been cast as The Phantom.

Penikett is best known for playing Helo on Battlestar. In Riverworld he'll play war correspondent Matt Ellman, who is killed along with his fiance played by Vandervoort and then awake into a mysterious world populated by everybody who has ever lived on Earth. Alan Cumming (Tin Man) guest stars as “The Caretaker.”

On The Phantom, Carnes will play the newest incarnation of the comic book hero, with Isabella Rossellini guest starring as the villainous Lithia, the head of mind control experiment.

Also cast in Riverworld are Jeananne Goossen and Mark Deklin, with Cameron Goodman and Sandrine Holt added to the Phantom cast.

Both projects are from RHI Entertainment and started production Monday.

Riverworld and The Phantom will air as four-hour movies on Sci Fi sometime next year. A third RHI project for the network, Alice, will air this year.

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