Lee Pace to Headline AMC's Computer Drama Pilot Halt & Catch Fire

Emmy nominee Lee Pace is stepping into the TV spotlight once again! The Pushing Daisies alum has signed on to play computer visionary Joe MacMillan in the AMC pilot Halt & Catch Fire, according to TV Line. Mackenzie Davis (Smashed) is set to co-star opposite Pace in the Juan Jose Campanella-directed TV drama.

Set in the early '80s, Halt & Catch Fire revolves around "the personal computing boom and is told through the eyes of a visionary engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate behemoths of the time." The duo's personal and professional partnership becomes strained by greed and ego as they navigate the changing culture in Texas’ Silicon Prairie.

Pace's character is a former superstar salesman at IBM who recently departed under mysterious circumstances, only to resurface at a Dallas tech company. Davis plays Cameron Howe, a talented but volatile computer programming graduate student whose aggressive exterior has everything to do with protecting a vulnerability underneath.

Pace recently starred in MTC's production of Terrence McNally's Golden Age. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning revival of The Normal Heart. Pace appeared off-Broadway in The Credeaux Canvas, The Fourth Sister and Small Tragedy. His film and TV credits include Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and Steven Speilberg's Lincoln.