Yancy
Butler, star of the TNT television movie Witchblade now shooting in Toronto,
shares many traits with her character, NYPD detective Sara Pezzini. "She
is very strong. She's commanding. She's in control of her life," said Matt
Hawkins, president of Santa Monica-based Top Cow comics, which publishes
the comic of the same name on which the film is based.
Filmmakers
"weren't just looking for a pretty face," Hawkins told the Toronto Sun.
"They wanted somebody who could actually pull it off."
In
the telefilm--which is also a series pilot--Butler plays the detective
chosen to wield the titular Witchblade, a sentient artifact designed to
battle the forces of evil. It's not the first time Butler, 30, has played
a cop or appeared in a fantasy show: she was a regular on Brooklyn South
and portrayed the machine half of Mann & Machine.
Butler's
co-star is former Baywatch actor David Chokachi, playing Sara's partner
Jake McCartey, a surfer transferred in from the west coast. Witchblade
shoots in Toronto from mid-February until mid-March, with an eye to an
October air date.
