Scott Bakula, still best known for his starring role in Quantum Leap despite all he's done since, has bagged the second leading role in The Informant, opposite Matt Damon in the lead and with Steven Soderbergh directing.
The (based-on-a-true) story casts Bakula as FBI agent Brian Shepherd, who attempts to bring down a hugely powerful corporation that's guilty of widespread, highly illegal price fixing on a worldwide basis. His star witness is biochemist Mark Whitacre (Damon) - but the problem is that Whitacre's highly manipulative, unstable and deceitful, putting Shepherd's career on the line as the case becomes increasingly complex.
It's all based on the non-fiction book by Kurt Eichenwald, a New York Times journalist who reported on the scandal as it broke in the mid-1990s. Scott Z. Burns, who previously worked on The Bourne Ultimatum script, has written the adaptation.
For our money, Bakula's good casting for a clean-cut - indeed crew-cut - FBI agent, and it's about time he did something that's a little more of a chance to stretch. And with Soderbergh and Damon reuniting for a non-Ocean's film, this is looking more interesting by the day.
Incidentally, it's arguable that the sign of a sci-fi geek is the level of affection they have for Scott Bakula. If you show them his picture and someone asks, "Wasn't he the gay neighbour in American Beauty?" then you know that that person doesn't know a tricorder from a tricorn. If they recite the entire opening monologue of Quantum Leap and follow that by singing the theme to Enterprise, then you can safely reveal your geekish tendencies without fear of reprisal. Although, dude, no one wants to see your authentic recreation of his Star Trek uniform.