Benz, Curran cast in Syfy's 'Defiance'

NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, Tony Curran and Jaime Murray have joined the cast of the drama series "Defiance" shooting in Toronto next month, Syfy said.

The four will work with New Zealand-born actor Grant Bowler, who was previously announced as a lead in the show, which is being billed as the first to unite television and Massively Multiplayer Online gaming. The pilot is being directed by Scott Stewart and written-produced by Rockne O'Bannon, Kevin Murphy and Michael Taylor. Murphy serves as show-runner.

"Set in the near future, 'Defiance' introduces a completely transformed planet Earth, inhabited by the survivors of a universal war," Syfy said in a release Wednesday. "Forced to co-habitate, the disparate group struggles to build a new society among the devastation. The dramatic tapestry of the series and the intense action of the game will exist in a single universe where their respective narratives will inform one another and evolve together into one overall story."

The Syfy series and Trion's multi-platform shooter MMO game are to debut simultaneously on a date yet to be determined.