Actor Mark Harmon has been cast in a television movie based on a novel written by prolific novelist John Sandford of Stillwater.

USA Network announced Thursday that it has secured the rights to develop the two-hour movie based on the book "Certain Prey," the 10th in Sandford's series of 20 bestselling "Prey" novels.

In "Certain Prey," Sandford pits his popular antihero, Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport, against a hit woman and a cunning killer determined to hunt him down. Chris Gerolmo ("Mississippi Burning") adapted the script from the novel.

Production on the movie is scheduled to start in May, the network said.

Along with his starring role, Harmon of "NCIS" TV fame will be an executive producer with Michael Jaffe and Howard Braunstein of Jaffe-Braunstein Films ("The Informant," "The Client List").

Sandford -- real name, John Camp -- worked as a reporter in Miami before coming to the Pioneer Press in 1978. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for a series on a farm family during the 1980s agricultural crisis and was nominated once before.

PAUL WALSH